
1^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

cMp......T. Copyright No. 

Slielt.ii.L_l^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL. 



Copyright 1896, 
By Armayis p. Vartooguian. 





k^v 



-^ ^ \ 



THE SPIRIT OF ARMENIA. 

(after an old etching.) 



SECOND EDITION. [Price $i.oo. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL. 

A SKETCH OF THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE 

HISTORY OF ARMENIA ; 

AN INSIDE ACCOUNT OF THE WORK OF AMERICAN 

MISSIONARIES AMONG ARMENIANS, AND 

ITS RUINOUS EFFECT ; 

AND A GENERAL REVIEW OF THE 

ARMENIAN QUESTION. 
Armayis p. Vaktooguian. 



bO i/hp iTliLUjO i^jjLnLpbujO q[i0^t 

—pu'^nnsniAj'h 

Griefs and distressing perils can alone 
determine our excellence. 

— Pacradouni. 

fNOV10^-B96 

New YoHi^. 

1896. - . ^ 



PREFACE, 



It was not a vain desire to come out as an author that 
impelled me to undertake the present work. Only a short 
time ago nothing was further from my thoughts than 
lo write a book in the near future. My youthful age, 
my limited knowledge of the English language, my edu- 
cation, and many other circumstances, were unfavorable 
for me to make such an attempt. I would fain not as- 
sume this work, and wait longer that some abler person 
might undertake the task, or until I would be more ma- 
ture in age and otherwise ; but I was driven by some in- 
visible power to write this book now. 

Several books and pamphlets have already appeared 
during the past two memorable years, treating of the 
Armenian Question. But I venture to say the writers 
thus far have been treating of the crust of the Question, 
and the inside has not been penetrated. 

Some of the authors of such works have rendered ex- 
cellent service in lighting up certain points of the Ques- 
tion ; while others have taken up the subject, not out of 
any good will to the Armenian cause, but for the further- 
ance of their craft wherein lies their own interest. 

I have been displeased with two volumes on the Ar- 



a PREFACE 

menian Question, by authors formerly connected with 
the missionary work in Turkey, and I am shocked to see 
them stabbing the Armenians even now when these Ar- 
menians are electing martyrdom for the sake of Jesus 
when ofiered the alternative of the sword or the Koran. 
I could not imagine that they would stoop to 
slander the faith of those martyrs who are giving their 
lives for their Christianity, and to criticise their Church 
in the manner that was their wont many years ago. 
Moreover, I am grieved to see that a guilty conscience 
does not sting their hearts for the evils which are in no 
small measure due to them. The manner in which 
authors of this class have treated the bleeding Ar- 
menia in their books is similar to the one suggested by 
Doctor Cat when in consultation on poor Jenny Wren — 

Doctor Cat says, '' Indeed 

I don't think she's dead ; 
I believe if I try, 

She yet might be bled." 

Their chief aim in writing of Armenia has been to rec- 
ommend the missionary cure as the cheapest and best 
remedy for both Turks and Armenians — like some patent 
medicines which are claimed to cure everything, yet 
would do good to none. 

Canon MacColl's pamphlet on " England's Responsibil- 
ity '^owa/ds Armenia " is a good illustration of the Ar- 



PREFACE m 

menian affair from the standpoint of an Englishman of 
liberal mind. 

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell has done a commendable 
service in introducing to the English-speaking world 
some samples of Armenian poetry, representing the feel- 
ings and pangs of the Armenian poet, by publishing a 
collection of Armenian poems rendered into English 
verse by herself, containing some excellent specimens of 
the poems of Archbishop Lusignan and the boy-poet 
Bedros Tourian, whose writings have always been full of 
pathos and brilliant with originality. 

Mr. William Watson's "Purple East " is an excellent 
collection of sonnets on the occasion of the Armenian 
horrors, upbraiding the British Government for its shame- 
ful stand towards the distressed Armenia. The English 
people may well be proud of such a fiery bard who would 
give vent to what the Spirit of Truth inspires. It is said 
that the " Purple East " cost its author the Laureateship, 
which, however, if true, is no loss for a poet like Wat- 
son. As a plain and independent poet, as all poets should 
be, Watson is far greater than the ' ' Treachery's Apolo- 
gist, " who received a laurel that was formerly worn by 
one of a much larger head, and not fitting his own, slip- 
ped down around his neck. Lord Salisbury holding the 
end of the ribbon attached to the laurel. Such gewgaws 
cannot add to the worth of Watson. 



iV PREFACE 

In my present attempt, I venture to break the crust of 
the Armenian case, and exhibit what lies within. My 
object has been to give full information of the Armenian 
nation itself, without which it would be difficult to form 
an adequate idea of their position in the present crisis. 
The Armenian nation and the Armenian troubles 
are grossly misrepresented by parties interested in doing 
so, and everything is seen by those outside in foreign 
colors. While many are in earnest sympathy with the 
Armenians in their nation's ordeal, they have not been 
in a position to inquire into the inside of the matter, and 
to distinguish the falsehoods of our enemies from the 
truth. Therefore it was necessary that an Armenian, 
familiar with the inside, should bring the facts forth into 
light. 

The present work is divided into three parts. In the 
first part is made a general review of the main features 
of Armenia's history ; in the second part an inside ac- 
count is given of the labors of the American missionaries 
among the Armenians, for they have had much influence 
on the nation, and a true conception of the real condition 
of the modern Armenians cannot be had without know- 
ing what the missionaries have done to them ; and in the 
third part the Armenian Question is examined in its 
various phases and conditions, and a knowledge of the 
Armenians and their present condition, acquired by the 



PREFACE V 

reader in the second part, will be a Jaelp for the true con- 
ception of some of the evils in the Armenian troubles 
spoken of in the third part. 

The name of Truth is applauded by all, but Truth it- 
self is very disagreeable and unwelcome to many. Know- 
ing this, I have resolved to cliog fast to the truth, to say 
nothing but the truth, and to say a good deal of the 
truth that I know in relation to my subject, unmindful 
of its consequences. The Turkish proverb says: "He 
that will speak truth shall have a hole in his head." It 
is risky sometimes to speak truth. But what do I risk 
except myself ? and what am I in comparison with the 
sacred cause for which I come forth to speak ? The sa- 
cred cause of my martyred nation demands of me to speak 
out, and to speak the truth ; for the best interests and 
the only hope of my people lie in the revelation of the 
truth. Therefore I must speak the truth at all hazards. 

In conclusion,. I must request my readers to look on 
my defective English with leniency, remembering that 
only eight years ago I was wholly ignorant of the lan- 
guage in which I make this literary venture, and that I 
acquired my knowledge of English under very unfavorable 
circumstances. I make no claim whatever that this work 
possesses any literary merit ; my object is to express my 
thoughts, and if I am understood I will be satisfied. 

A. p. V. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 
A HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

CHAPTER I. Page 

The Origin and Growth of the Armenian 

Nation, ....... i 

CHAPTER II. 

Christianity in Armenia, .... 7 

CHAPTER III. 

The Struggle for the Maintenance of the 

National Church, ii 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Rise and Fall of the Bagaratian Dy- 
nasty, i6 

CHAPTER V. 

The Reign of the Rubenians and the Peril 

of the National Church, ... 22 



Vlll CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI. Page 
The Church as the Preserver of the Nation- 
ality, 33 



PART 11. 

AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AMONG 
ARMENIANS. 

CHAPTER I. 

Beginning the Work, 3(i 

CHAPTER II. 

The Mode of Evangelization, ... 47 

CHAPTER III. 

Some Results of Missionary Work, . . 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Educational Work, . . . . 67 

CHAPTER V. 

The Plots of the " Church-Reformists," . 78 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Turning of the Tide, .... 90 



CONTENTS IX 

CHAPTER VII. Page 

Another Step Toward National Regenera- 
tion, 95 



PART III. 
7WE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Policy of England and Russia Towards 

the Ottoman Empire. .... 102 

CHAPTER II. 

British Cruelty, . . . . . .116 

CHAPTER III. 

The Origin of the Armenian Question and 

England's Crime, ..... 124 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Porters Preliminary Steps for the Sup- 
pression of the Armenian Question, and 
England's Shameful Part, . . . 136 

CHAPTER V. 

The Hentchak^ . . . . . .146 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI. Page 

The Sultan Preparing for the Extermination 

of the Armenians, ..... 155 

CHAPTER VII. 

The So Called Armenian Revolution as it 

Really is, . . . . . .161 




TIGRANE THE: GREAT. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL. 

PART FIRST. 
A HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



CHAPTER L* 

THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ARMENIAN NATION. 

The Armenian race belongs to the Japhetic branch of 
the human family. Its origin is traced to a patriarch 
like that of the Jews. They are the descendants of Haig, 
the eldest of the eight sons of Torgom, or Togarmah. 
Togarmah's name is recorded in the book of Genesis as a 
grandson of Japhet. This shows that the national anti- 
quity of the Armenians dates further back than that of 
the Jews. 

After the deluge Noah is said to have settled near the 
skirts of Mount Ararat, which is quite natural to assume, 
where his descendants lived with him until they grew so 
numerous that it became necessary for them to emigrate 
towards Shinar. 

Haig accompanied the migration to Shinar where he 
took part in the construction of the tower of Babel, but 
after the confusion of the tongues he returned with his 
family to the shores of Lake Van, in Armenia, where his 

*This chapter is written chiefly upon the authority of Moses 
of Khorene, the Armenian historian of the V. ceiitury. 



2 Armenia's ordeal 

father and grandfather resided. It is but natural that 
all did not join the great emigration, and the older folks 
preferred to remain in their paternal home near the skirts 
of Mount Ararat. Returning to the home of his forefa- 
thers, Haig built a town for his family and attendants^ in 
all numbering about three hundred souls, which he named 
Hark, meaning the fathers, from which Ingigian, the emi- 
nent Armenian archaeologist, infers that Haig must have 
been an affectionate son, strongly attached to his forefa- 
thers; hence he finds it natural that 'Haig should have 
learned again the tongue of his father which he had lost 
in the confusion, and that he did not preserve the lan- 
guage which he brought from Shinar, and which was 
given as a divine curse. In those days Nimrod, a power- 
ful chief, established a monarchy and ruled over all the 
emigrants who had gone to Shinar. After his arrival and 
settlement on the shores of Lake Yan, Haig was followed 
by Mmrod, who came at the head of an army to subju- 
gate Armenia. Haig gave battle to Nimrod and slew the 
tyrant. By this act of gallantry Haig became the pro- 
tector and chief of his country. 

The family of Haig grew into a nation within 300 
years, and Prince Aram, the sixth generation of Haig, 
extended his conquests as far as Cappadocia, where he 
planted a great colony on the site of the present Csesaria. 
It was after this prince that Haig's descendants were 
called by foreign nations "Armenians," instead of Hal, and 
their country was known as Armenia, instead of Haias- 
dan. Hai and Haiasdan are still the only appellations 
used among the Armenians themselves. Particulars are 
wanting regarding the rule of the first Armenian dynasty, 
which governed Armenia down to the time of Alexander 



Armenia's ordeal 3 

the Great, by whom the country was brought to submis- 
sion, B. C. 327. Among the princes of the first dynasty 
the greatest was King Tigrane I., who reigned over Ar- 
menia for fourty-five years (565-520 B. C). In the days 
of this illustrious monarch Armenia attained the maxi- 
mum of her pre-Christian prosperity. The historian tells 
that in those days almost all the available land through- 
out the kingdom was cultivated ; the country was dense- 
ly populated, and the prevailing prosperity attracted the 
peoples of the neighboring countries. The famed city of 
Tigranocerta, now known by the Turkish name Diarbe- 
kir,* was founded and built by this king. Tigrane I. al- 
FO engaged in many wars and aggrandized his dominion. 
He was succeeded by Vahagn, the youngest of his three 
sons, who possessed such remarkable muscular strength, 
that he was deified and his image was worshipped by the 
Georgians for several centuries. 

After the downfall of the first dynasty and the con- 
quest of Armenia by Alexander the Great, the country 
was governed by Armenian noblemen, who paid a tribute 
to Seleucia. Armenia regained her independence m the 
year 149 B. C, receiving upon her throne Vagharshag, a 
Parthian prince and a brother of the king of Persia. Va- 
gharshag became the founder of the Arshagouni (Arsace- 
dean) dynasty which reigned over Armenia until A. D. 
428. 

Under this second dynasty Armenia once more became 
a powerful kingdom. Ardashes I., surnamed the Con- 
queror, ascended the Armenian throne B. C. 114. He 
was a warlike prince, and conquered many neighboring 
principalities. One of his enterprising achievemerts wa3 
the construction of a formidable fleet with which he su'' 



4 Armenia's ordeal 

ceeded in capturing many islands in the Mediterranean. 
He also invaded Greece, and thence imported to Arme- 
nia the images of Grecian deities, together with their 
respective priests, and established them in various parts 
of Armenia ; hence the introduction of Grecian polythe- 
ism in Armenia. After a glorious reign of twenty-five 
years Ardashes the Conqueror was killed by his own 
troops during a tumult in his army. 

Tigrane II., better known as Tigrane the Great, suc- 
ceeded his father, Ardashes the Conqueror, in 89 B. C. 
The news of the sudden death of Ardashes came to the 
newly conquered nations like a signal for a general rebel- 
lion, so that when Tigrane ascended the throne Greeks 
and other peoples were invading Armenia. Tigrane's 
rule began by first putting down the widespread insur- 
rections, and making it understood by all that although 
Ardashes was dead, he was much alive in the person of 
his young son. 

Mithridates VI., King of Pontus, was a brother-in-law 
of Tigrane, having marrried a daughter of Ardashes the 
Conqueror. His kingdom was under the suzerainty of 
that of Armenia, and, on account of his extraordinary ta- 
lent and bravery, he had been a favorite at the court of 
his father-in-law. Tigrane entrusted Mithridates with, 
the command of an Armenian army consisting of 140,000 
infantry and 16,000 cavalry, and commissioned him with, 
the conquest of Greece. Mithridates met with great suc- 
cess. Within a short time he subdued Bithynia, which 
was in revolt, and advanced on Thrace, Macedonia and 
Greece, which likewise submitted to his conquering ad- 
vance. The Armenian army under the command of Mith- 
ridates finally captured Athens in 87 B, C, This swift 



Armenia's ordeal 5 

succes encouraged Tigrane the Great to contemplate of 
pushing his conquest forward even to Rome itself. But 
soon matters took an adverse turn. Sulla hastened from 
Rome at the head of an army to meet Mithridates in 
Greece. The Romans were coming out fresh from their 
home, while the Armenian army was badly in need of re 
inforcements as its conquests had naturally cost more or 
less loss of strength. But Armenia M'as too far behind 
for immediate reinforcements. Mithridates was driven 
out of Greece with great loss and the Romans pursued 
him across the Hellespont.* 

Dissatisfied with the outcome of Mithridates' expedi- 
tion in Europe, Tigrane assumed the commandership 
himself and began to conduct the war in person. These 
wars lasted very long. Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey were 
successively sent on Armenia, but they found her uncon- 
querable. Tigrane and Mithridates resisted them very 
bravely. The Romans would have certainly been driven 
back to Europe had it not been for treacheries in Tig- 
rane's own army, — the result of Roman bribery and pro- 
mises. Parnag, (Pharnaces, ) son of Mithridates, passed to 
the enemy's side and besieged his own father at Pantica- 
pseum till at last in his despair Mithridates sought relief 
in death by committing suicide together with the mem- 

♦Mithridates being a king himself, the Romans seem to have 
had the impression, which was not unnatural, that he was wa- 
ging this war on the account of his own crown, and Roman his- 
torians have recorded this campaign accordingly. They also 
seem to have felt a pleasure in speaking of the achievements 
of the Armenian fleet in the Ionian and Tuscan Seas as the work 
of Cilician pirates, but the magnitude of the depredations, as 
they describe, is sufficient to convince their readers that they 
could have been no work of mere pirates. 



6 Armenia's ordeal 

bers of his family who were with him, B. C. 63. Tig- 
rane the Great also had the same misfortune as his bro- 
ther-in-law. His son, Diran, rebelled against him and 
by the help of the king of Persia laid siege to the city 
Ardashad. Diran was defeated by his father and put to 
flight, whereupon he went into the camp of Pompey 
whom he guided against his own father. Under these 
sinister circumstances Tigrane was compelled to conclude 
peace with Pompey, ceding to Rome certain territories. 

Tigrane abdicated and placed his son Ardavazt I. upon 
the throne, taking the command of the army upon him- 
self. Once more he went to war with the Romans and 
fought against Gabianus, Crassus, and Cassius, but e- 
ventually the Romans became masters of Assyria because 
Tigrane was no more young. By making certain conces- 
sions Tigrane secured the alliance of the King of Persia 
and renewed hostilities against the Romans and drove 
them out of Assyria. The wars continued until Tigrane 
the Great died at the age of eighty-five years, having 
reigned fifty-four years, which was an era of almost con- 
tinual wars for Armenia. 

Ardavazt I. did not posses the spirit of his father, and 
the powerful kingdom of Armenia was soon overcome. 
Ardavazt was treacherously made a prisoner by Mark 
Antony and was carried to Egypt where he was decapi- 
tated. After the death of Ardavazt, the kingdom of Ar- 
menia was divided into two and was governed by two 
different princes of the Arsacedean dynasty, the one be- 
ing Armenia proper and the other Mitchaked (Mesopo- 
tamia), 



Armenia's ordeal 



CHAPTER II. 

CHRISTIANITY IN ARMENIA. 

Arsham, a nephew of Tigrane the Great, became the 
ruler of Mesopotamia, making Mudzpin (Nisibis) his 
seat, and paid a tribute to Rome. After a reign of about 
thirty years he was succeeded by his son, Abgar,* in the 
year 1 B. C. This prince became famous in Armenian 
history not by conquest, but by being the first monarch 
to believe in Jesus Christ. 

Finding Mudzpin to be too near to the Assyrian boun- 
dary, King Abgar thought that he was exposed to the 
danger of suddenly being attacked by the Romans. 
Therefore he removed his seat to Edessa. In his days the 
King of Persia died and a dispute arose for the succes- 
sion among the king's surviving three sons. The royal 
house of Persia being related to that of Annenia, Abgar 
hastened to Persia to settle the dispute by arbitration. 
During his sojourn in Persia Abgar contracted a dreadful 
desease, supposed to be leprosy, by which he suffered 
long. 

It so happened that three Armenian military emissaries 
upon their return from their mission, passed through Je- 
rusalem for the purpose of seeing Jesus, whose fame had 

*According to Moses of Khorene the correct name of this 
prince was originally Avac-air, (which in Armenian means great 
ina7i^ "because of his meekness and wisdom, and also for his sta- 
ture," but it was corrupted by his numerous Greek and Assyrian 
subjects to Avgarus; hence Abgarus. This latter form some less 
informed persons have supposed to be a corruption of the Arabic 
name Akbar. 



8 Armenia's oRDEAii 

reached their ears. On their return to Edessa they told 
to King Abgar of the miracles they had witnessed and 
heard of. Upon hearing their narrations the afflicted 
king exclaimed: "He must be either a god that has des- 
cended from the heavens, or a son of a god." He be- 
lieved in Jesus then and there, and believed that He 
could cure him of his disease. Immediately he caused a 
letter to be written to Jesus inviting Him to come to E- 
dessa and heal him, and rule upon his little kingdom to-- 
gether. The letter was dispatched by Anan, the royal 
courier. Anan was accompanied by an artist who was 
instructed to bring a portrait of Jesus, in case He should 
decline the invitation. Jesus sent an answer, written by 
the apostle Thomas, in which He declined the invitation 
and promised to send two of His apostles after He would 
"ascend unto His Father."* Besides the letter, the Lord 

*The text of Abgar' s letter and Its answer are to be found in 
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. Eusebius declares that tie had 
found the copies in the archieves of Edessa, and had translated 
from them. Moses of Khorene, one of the best scholars of the 
Golden Age of Armenian literature, testifies in h.\s> History of Ar- 
menia that in his time those manuscripts were still preserved in 
the royal archieves of Edessa. His history contains not onl)' the 
texts of those two letters, but also those of several other impor- 
tant epistles sent by Abgar to various monarchs recommend- 
ing them the religion of Jesus. These precious documents were 
lost probably during the destruction of Edessa by the .Saracens 
when the magnificent metropolis was set on fire and razed to the 
ground. 

Referring to the passage In the Gospel where the visit of "cer- 
iain Greeks" to Jesus is mentioned, Moses of Khorene says that 
they were Abgar's emissaries. In the Greek version of the Gos- 
pel those visitors are referred to as "certain Gentiles," while 
according totheSyriac version they were "Aramaeans." 

It is considered strange that a full account of such a re- 
markable event in the career of our Lord should have been O- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 9 

sent to King Abgar a napkin bearing the likeness of His 
face. 

After the ascension of Jesus, apostle Thomas sent 
Thaddeus, one of the seventy-two disciples, to Edessa. 
King Abgar received Thaddeus with the greatest honors, 
and even prostrated himself on his face before the dis- 

mitted by the four Evangelists. In chapter xii. of the Gospel 
of John the account of the visit of those Gentiles seems to be 
abruptly curtailed. While the Evangelist has gone into details 
regarding the visit of the strangers as to who they saw flrst, 
what they said, and what Philip did&c; nothing is said about 
the strangers being received by the Lord, and whj^ they wanted 
to see Jesus, or why Philip was so much stirred up as to go and 
confer with another apostle. There must have been something 
unusual about these strangers, for we see no other instance in 
which the apostles should have conferred with each other before 
presenting to Jesus any one that wished to see Him. 

Assuming that the strangers were royal emissaries, who had 
come to offer the Lord a crown, does it not seem natural that the 
apostles should have conferred with each other as to with what 
etiquette the distinguished visitors were to be received by Jesus? 
Philip and Andrew, after conferring with each other, did not 
take the strangers forthwith to the presence of Jesus, but went 
and spoke to Him, presumably to inquire in what manner He 
■would receive such royal emissaries on such a mission. The 
words of Jesus on this occation tend to support the belief 
that they were Abgar's emissaries inviting Jesus to go to E- 
dessa and share the throne with the king Jesus said on that 
occation: "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glo- 
rified," [that is to sa^', I think, that he should be glorified by the 
accomplishment of His mission, which was to die for the salva- 
tion of mankind]. His words on this occation are very much 
like arguing why he should not accept the offer, and should 
suffer death at the hands of his own people. He said: 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into 
the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth 
forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he 
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 
If any man serve me let him follow me." (John xii. 24-26.) 



10 Armenia's ordeal 

ciple. 

"Art thou the disciple of the blessed Jesus," asked 
the king eagerly, "whom He had promised to send unto 
me, and canst thou heal me of my affliction?" 

<'If thou believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, thy 
heart's wish shall be granted unto thee, " replied Thad- 
deus. 

"I have believed in Him, and in His Father," answer- 
ed Abgar. 

Thaddeus preached the gospel, and placing his hand 
upon the head of the king healed him of his affliction. 
The whole royal household and the people of Edessa 
soon believed in Christ and were baptised by the apostle. 
Thaddeus ordained Atte, the king's morion maker, as bi- 
shop of Edessa and he went to Armenia proper there to 
preach the gospel. 

During the days of Abgar Christianity was rapidly 
spread throughout Armenia, but upon his death Anane, 
Abgar's son and successor, and Sanadroug, Abgar's ne- 
phew and the king of Armenia proper, became persecu- 
tors of the newly introduced religion, obviously for poli- 
tical reasons. Anane reigned but a short time and he 
-was crushed to death under a falling pillar while giving 
instructions in the construction of a new palace. Upon 
Anane's death Mesopotamia was re-annexed to Arme- 
nia proper. Apostle Bartholomew also came to Armenia 
and labored for the propagation of the Christian faith. 
Like Anane, Sanadroug also lost his life by an accident. 
He was killed by an arrow shot astray by one of his ar- 
chers while hunting. 

After that there were times of persecution and times 
of toleration, and the number of the believers increased or 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAIi 11 

decreased accordingly. But Christianity was never per- 
emptorily abandoned by the Armenians. However a re- 
vival took place at the hands of St. Gregory the Illumin- 
ator, by the conversion of King Durtad (Tiridates, ) and 
once more Christianity became the national religion of 
the Armenians, A. D. 302. "Within a very short time al- 
most the whole nation had been converted. The Church 
of Armenia was formally organized and St. Gregory be- 
came the Catholicos or Pontiff of the Church.* 



CHAPTER in. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE MAINTENANCE OP THE NATIONAL 

CHURCH. 

Upon the downfall of the Arsacedean dynasty, 428 A. 
D., Armenia lost her independence and became a satrapy 
of Persia. Yezdigird II., the King of Persia, first secur- 
ed his powerful grasp on Armenia, and then he invited 
the Armenian nation to renounce their religion and be- 
come Zoroastrian fire-worshippers. A council consisting 
of the leading ecclesiastics and the nobility, especially as- 
sembled, wrote, on behalf of the nation, a ringing reply 
t) the King's imperious message, which concluded thus : 

"From this faith no one can m-ove us, — neither angels 

*Perhaps it may not be out of place to correct an error, which 
appears so often in the press, legarding' the Catholicos of the 
Church of Armenia. The Catholicos is not the "head" of the 
Church as he is erroneously called. He is the high priest of the 
Church,— the head of the clerg-y. The Church of Armenia re- 
cognizes Christ as the only head of the Church, according to the 
teachings of Paul (Ephesians Vi 23, Coloasians i. 17.18,) 



12 AllMBTrrA'S OKDEAIj 

nor men; neitlier sword, nor fire, nor water, nor any- 
deadly punishment. If thou leave us our faith, we will 
have no other [civil] lord in place of thee ; but we will 
accept no god in place of Jesus Christ."* 

This dauntless reply enraged the self-styled King of 
Kings, and he issued orders to his generals to go and 
crush the rigid necks of the obstinate Armenians, and to 
show them that the crucified Jesus, whom they worship- 
ped so devotedly, was no match for Zarathrustra's Ahura- 
Mazda. This happened in A. D. 451. The invading ar- 
my was accompanied with a host of magi who were to 
instruct the Armenians in the worship of the fire when 
brought to submission by force. The Armenians were 
determined to perish rather than renounce their Chris- 
tianity. A great Armenian revolution resulted, led by 
the ecclesiastics, — a holy war, a heroic struggle, great 
bloodshed, horrible martyrdoms. The decisive battle 
was fought in the plain of Avarair, on the banks of the 
river Dughmood. One thousand and thirty-six Arme- 
nians fell in the battle, including many prominent nobles, 
and the Commander-in-chief Vartan Mamigonian , the 
soul of the revolution, who has since been recognized as 
a saint for defending the Church so heroically. 

Of the Persians that day over 3500 were killed, among 
whom were many prominent soldiers and chiefs, the flo- 
wer ot the army, so that the Persian commander tremb- 
led to report to his sovereign the result of the battle. 
Yezdigird II. became convinced that it would be impos- 
sible to subdue the Armenians and to forcibly proselyte 
them, and wishing to put an end to the unprofitable war- 

*Eg'hiche, Vartan^ and the War of the Armenians. 



IP 




VARTAN MAMIGONIAN. 



Armenia's ordeal 13 

fare, he abruptly changed his policy and issued an edict 
granting them freedom of worship. 

Peace reigned in Armenia for a short time, and the 
Persians again began to oppress the Armenians. About 
fourteen years after the battle of Avarair, the Armenians 
once more revolted against Persia ; this time being led by 
Vahan Mamigonian, the worthy nephew of Vartan. This 
revolution met with every success. The Persians were 
driven out of Armenia, and the King of Persia sued for 
peace, conceding to Vahan the satrapy of Armenia for 
life. Vahan governed his country for twenty-six years 
on a liberal scale, and after his death Armenia continu- 
ed to enjoy an autonomous government for about one 
hundred and forty years, being ruled by Armenian nobles 
appointed by, and tributary to Persia. 

In the first half of the VII. century Armenia succes- 
sively fell into the hands of the Greeks, the Persians, and 
the Saracens. About the year 640, during the Khalifate 
of Omar, when Mohammedanism had become powerful 
in the South, the Saracens swooped upon Armenia under 
the leadership of Abd-ul-Rahman. They met with but 
little resistance and captured Tween, the then capital of 
Armenia; they plundered the city and massacred 12,000 
souls, and they carried 35,000 into captivity. After thus 
plundering and devastating the country they retired 
from Armenia. At this time Armenia was governed by 
a native prefect, appointed by the Emperor of Constanti- 
nople. While the Greeks ruled over Armenia and exact- 
ed heavy taxes, they would not protect her inhabitants 
against foreign incursions, and, besides, they would even 
abuse their power so much as to attempt to meddle with 
the religious affairs of the Church of Armenia. These 



14 Armenia's ordeaij 

things drove the Armenians to prefer to be under the su- 
zerainty of the Saracens rather than that of the fanati- 
cal Christian Greeks who hated them as much as the Mos- 
lems did, and whose bigotry and endless theological dis- 
putes were more intolerable than the rule of the Moham- 
medans.* Therefore they entered under the protection of 
the Saracens. This enraged Emperor Constantino and he 
invaded Armenia, and garrisoned the country with Greek 
soldiers. He ordered the Council of Chalcedon to be 
read in the cathedral in Tween, and forcibly constrained 
the Armenians to accept the same, But after Constan- 
tine's departure, the Catholicos, Johannes the Philoso- 
pher, condemned the Council of Chalcedon and ruled it 
out, 647 A. D. 

After that Armenia alternately fell into the hands of 
the Saracens and the Greeks. Each one proved to be 
worse than the other. When the Greeks were dominant 
Armenians wished to be under the Saracens, and when 
the latter ruled they wished to be under the former. 
The Greeks were as tyrrannical as the Mohammedans and 
as much eager to proselyte the Armenians into their 
Church. Armenians struggled with all their might for 
the preservation of the apostolic purity of their national 
church, which was "the price of the blood of their brave 
forefathers, and the glory of the Armenian nation." It 
was impossible for such a conscientious people as the 
Armenians to leave their pure and simple Christian 
Church, which stobd only for the edification of the spi- 

* "The Greek race, too old and too exhausted to bear a new and 
a severe religion like Christianity, dissolved it into theological 
quibbling which was obliged to borrow substance from idolat- 
ry." — Menzies, History of the Ottoman Empire, p. 37. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 15 

rit,* for that of the Greek Church, which was used as an 
instrument to subjugate peoples and to rule over the na- 
tions, body and soul. Armenians would endure the tyr- 
ranny of the Moslem rather than forsake their practical 
Christianity and suffer the sanctity of their religion to be 
made the plaything of the Greeks. So, finally, in the 
year 693 A. D. once more they flung themselves into the 
arms of the Saracens in compliance with the motto of 
Vartan Mamigonian's revolution: ''Fear him not that kil- 
leth only the body ; fear him that doth cast both body and 
spirit into hell. " 

Had the Greeks left the Armenians alone, perhaps the 
Armenians could defend their country against the Mos- 
lems and could regain their autonomy. But it was im- 
possible for them to do anything effective between those 
two fires, having on the one hand the fanatical Greek 
Christians and on the other hand the barbarous Arabian 
Mohammedans. Armenians could not resist both of these 
powerful enemies at the same time. They had to choose 
between the two and throw themselves into the arms of 
the one which they considered less dangerous to the cons- 
titution of their Church. 

* The following is the testimony of an American who was for- 
merly a missionary in Armenia; it has particular weight because, 
as a rule, the missionaries are not disposed to speak well regard- 
ing the Church of Armenia: 

"By nature the Armenians are deeply religious, as their whole 
literature and history show. It has been a religibn of the heart, 
not of the head. Its evidence is not to be found in metaphysical 
discussions and hair-splitting theology as in the case of the 
Greeks, but in a brave and simple record written with the tears 
of saints and illuminated with the blood of martyrs." — Rev. 
Frederick D, Greene, The Armenian Crisis in Turkey, p. 140. 



16 Armenia's ORDEAii 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BAGARATIAN DYNASTY. 

Under Moslem rule Armenia became the scene of the 
most awful cruelties for a period of about one hundred 
and sixty years, until they regained their autonomy at 
the hands of Ashod Pacradound, an Armenian nobleman, 
who established a kingdom tributary to the Khalif of 
Bagdad, and became the founder of the Pacradouni (Ba- 
garatian) dynasty, A. D. 859, This dynasty reigned o- 
ver Armenia one hundred and eighty-seven years. Dur- 
ing the reign of the Bagaratian princes Armenia once 
more flourished and became a centre of civilization. Her 
capital, Ani, became a magnificent Christian metropolis 
which boasted of having one thousand and one chur- 
ches.* 

* The reader may be enabled to form an idea of the splendor 
of this superb metropolis of ancient Armenia by reading Sir Ro- 
bert Ker Porter's description of the state of its ruins on the occa- 
tion of his visit in 1817, several centuries after the destruction of 
Ani by earthquake. It is as follows: 

"The "Western and Northern fronts have been defended by a 
double range of high walls and towers of the finest masonry. 
Three great entrances present themselves to the north. Over 
the centre gate was sculptured a leopard or lion-passant; and 
near it on the flanking towers, several large crosses were carved 
in the stone, and richly decorated with exquisite fret-work. On 
entering the city I found the whole surface of the ground co- 
vered with hewn stones, broken capitals, colum.ns, shattered, 
but highly ornamental friezes; and other remains of ancient 
magnificence.' Several churches, still existing in different parts 




KING ASHOD PACRADOUNI. 



Armenia's ordeal 17 

If there ever was a place and a time when the king- 
dom of Christ was come on earth, in the highest sense of 
the word, it was Armenia under the Bagaratian dynasty. 
"While, in times past, and in the present. Christian mon- 
archs have assumed and do assume to be the head of the 
church wherein their subjects worship, the King of Ar- 
menia at this time humbly served the priest before the 
altar, and chanted hymns together with the choir like 
any other common man. The King of Armenia, when in 
the church, considered himself the equal of any layman, 
and below any ecclesiastic. The priesthood had no 
worldly power wherewith to constrain the laity into sub- 
mission, yet the people reverenced them and humbly sub- 
mitted to their authority as to the servants of the Church 
of Christ. And the clergy guided their flock in the true 

'' J 

of the place, retain something more than ruins of their former 
dignity, but they are as solitary as all the other structures, on 
which time and devastation have left more heavy strokes. In. 
the western extremity of this great town, in which no living 
beings, except ourselves, seemed breathing, we saw the palace, 
once of the kings of Armenia; and it is a building worthy of 
the fame of this old capital. Its length stretches nearly the 
whole breadth, between the walls of the city on one side, and 
the ravine on the other. Indeed it seems a town in itself; and 
so superbly decorated within and without, that no description 
can give an adequate idea of the variety and richness of the 
highly wrought carvings on the stone, which are all over the 
building; or of the finely-executed mosaic patterns, which beau- 
tify the floors of its countless halls. (^ 

"Near the centre of the city rise two octagon towers of an 
immense height, surmounted by turrets. They command all 
around them, even the citedal, which stands to the south-west 
on a high rock and at the edge of a precipice. The farther I 
went, and the closer I examined the remains of this vast capital, 
the greater was my admiration of its firm and finished masonry. 
In short, the masterly workmanship of the capitals of pillars, 



18 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

spirit of Christianity, without taking advantage of the 
people's submission for their own worldly benefit. 

The Pontiff of the Church of Armenia never needed 
to have temporal power for the purpose of being obeyed 
by the laity ; the laity obeyed him as children would to 
their father. When the King was found in any misde- 
meanor the Pontiff would go and advise him or rebuke 
him, as the case might make it necessary. The King, 
having all the power in his hand to punish the Pontiff 
for disregard to his royal dignity, would cast down his 
eyes acknowledging his fault, and would promise to be 
good, sealing a kiss upon the hand of the venerable Pon- 
tiff. The King, as a Christian, knew that the temporal 
authority was below the spiritual, and that the former 
was to be guided by the latter. The King obeyed the 
Pontiff as a robust young man would obey his aged fa- 
ther, never for a moment thinking that he is physically 

the nice carvings of the intricate ornaments, and the arabesque 
friezes, surpassed anything of the kind I had ever seen, whether 
abroad, or in the most celebrated cathedrals of England. 

"I particularly observed a religious edifice, of less dimensions 
than some of the others, but of exquisite architecture. It stood 
very near the octagon towers; and its high arched roof was a 
beautiful specimen of mosaic work, enriched with borders of 
the pure Etruscan, formed in red, black and yellow stone. The 
pillars, and all ornamental parts of the building, were as sharp 
and fresh as if but the erection of yesterday.*** Fine and bril- 
liant mosaic, executed with more or less precision, spreads itself 
over the city; and, in general, the form of the cross appears to be 
the root whence all the various patterns spring. Houses, chur- 
ches, towers, embattled walls, every structure, high or low, par- 
take the prevailing taste; and on all we see the holy insignia 
carved, large or small, in black stone." — Sir Robert Ker Porter, 
Travels in Georgia, Persia, Arjnenia, Ancient Babylonia, &*., <&^., vol. 
i. pp. 172-174. 



ARMENIA'S ORDBAIi 19 

superior to his father. — (I fear that this simile will not 
convey to the average American mind just what I wish 
to express, for I have observed that in America generally 
fathers do not receive due respect from their children, — 
except when the "old man" is wealthy. But I know of 
no other example wherewith to express my idea. ) 

During the reign of the Bagaratian dynasty the Ar- 
menian nation did not cease to have troubles with the 
various Moslem races and the Greeks, and parts of Ar- 
menia having fallen into the hands ol the invaders, the 
inhabitants of those parts suffered very much under their 
alien oppressors. But the majority of the Armenians 
living in their autonomous country, enjoyed liberty, and 
much flourished and prospered. This excited the envy 
and the grudge of the Greeks. 

In the year 1045 Gagig II., the King of Armenia, was 
invited by the Greek Emperor, in a friendly manner, to 
visit Constantinople. The King of Armenia accepted 
the invitation and went to the Greek capital. The Chris- 
tian Emperor of the Greeks violated all laws of hospita- 
lity and made a prisoner of his royal guest. In the mean- 
time Ani, the Armenian capital, was invaded and captur- 
ed by an army of 100,000 of the Emperor's troops. Af- 
ter the Greek occupation of Armenia was accomplished, 
Gagig II. was released, and subsequently he was mur- 
dered by Greek assassins. 

The domination of the fanatical Greeks was attended 
with severe religious persecution, and the Catholicos, 
Bedros Kedatartz, was banished out of Armenia. The 
territories which the Greeks snatched with cowardly trea- 
chery, were soon overrun by the Seljukian Turks. The 
Greeks were no Armenians ; they could not resist the f u- 



20 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

rious torrent of Mohammedan invasions with the same 
bravery which the Armenians had heretofore manifested. 
Within about thirty-five years all those territories fell in- 
to the hands of the Turks. In the struggle between the 
Greeks and the Turks, the Armenians were trampled by 
both. In wresting any city from each other's hands, both 
of the combatting powers would not spare the Inhabi- 
tants. Almost every city became the scene of atrocious 
cruelties. The defeated Greek soldiers, in their flight, 
broke their vengeance upon the Armenians. The Greeks 
would not spare them because they did not accept the 
Greek Church and, therefore, were accursed heretics; 
and the Turks would burn the Armenian cities, massacre 
the inhabitants, and perpetrate all sorts of infernal atro- 
cities, because they were ''Christian dogs" and did not 
accept the Prophet of the Allah. 



The student of history will note that the growth and con- 
quests of Mohammedanism were considerably facilitated by the 
unwise policy of the Christian nations toward one another. 
The Christian governments, excepting that of Armenia, have 
been short-sighted, and selfish in the extreme; they have been 
plotting against each other, fighting with each other, weakening 
each other, and rendering each other easy prey for the advan- 
cing common enemy, — Mohammedanism. In this respect 
the Byzantine empire has been very foolish. The Armenian 
nation stood like a formidable barrier between the Asiatic Mo- 
hammedans and Europe. But the Byzantine empire, instead of 
helping the Armenians to hold their ground and keep the in- 
vading Mohammedans at bay, has been as much eager to 
pull down that barrier as the Mohammedans were. One would 
think the Greeks imagined that there were treasures hidden be- 
yond Armenia for which they yearned. After becoming mas- 
ters of Armenia by means of treachery, as related above, they 
found themselves face to face with the fire of hell in the person 



Armenia's ordeal 21 

of Alp Arslan, the sultan of the Seljukian Turks. The Greek 
power melted like wax before that fire. Alp Arslan crushed the 
Immense Greek army which was headed by the Cassar Ro- 
manus Diogenes. The Emperor himself was taken prisoner 
and carried to the presence of Alp Arslan, who trampled 
•upon the pride of his distinguished captive by actually setting 
his foot upon the Greek Emperor's neck. (See Menzies' Hist. 
Ott. Etnp. p. 29.) And the Greeks brought this upon themselves 
by plotting against the unoffensive Armenian nation! 

The Seljukian Turks wrested Armenia from the hands of 
the Greeks and pushed forward into the heart of Asia Minor, 
near to the Byzantine capital. Ere long the sultanry of Icon- 
lum was founded, (1095), and Asia Minor became the home of 
the Turks; but the Greeks did not take lesson from this. Their 
hatred towards Christians outside of their own Church was so 
Intense that they were disinclined to consider the Interests of 
Christendom, and were blind to their own. Even then the Byzan- 
tine empire leagued secretly with the Moslem sultans, against 
the Crusaders who were coming to avenge Christianity, and to 
deliver the holy places from the hands of the infidel. Why? Be- 
cause the Crusaders belonged to the Roman Church and not the 
Orthodox Greek. 

When the Ottomans took rise and were rapidly growing into 
an empire, the Byzantine empire and the other Christian govern- 
ments of Eastern Europe, Instead of being alarmed and forming 
themselves Into a Christian league against the common enemy, 
sought to smash each other's head by the help of the Ottomans. 
The assistance of the Ottomans was sought by the Greeks even 
in factional quarrels among themselves In Constantinople. The 
minor Christian nations In Eastern Europe followed the same 
unwise policy. Thus they enfeebled themselves and one another, 
and helped the Ottomans to grow powerful. Eventually all of 
them received the reward of their foolishness by being devoured 
by the monster which they petted as a fine beast to tear those 
they hated. They are to be pitied for their want of common 
sense. 



g3 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 



CHAPTER V. 

THE REIGN OF THE RUBENIANS AND THE PERHi OF THE 
NATIONAL CHURCH. 

The sufferings of the Armenians were somewhat alle- 
viated by the rise of a new dynasty and the establish- 
ment of an autonomous Armenian principality in the pro- 
vince of Cilicia, which afterwards became a kingdom. 
This fourth dynasty was founded by Ruben I., a relative 
of the unfortunate Gagig II., and was known as the Ru- 
benian dynasty. The dominion of the Rubenians began 
in 1080, and its authority was confined to the province 
of Cilicia, which became a place of refuge for the Arme- 
nians. Armenia proper was in a state of anarchy under 
the sway of Mohammedanism, and battles were constantly 
fought between the barbarian Moslems and the desperate 
Armenians who would revolt and fall upon their relent- 
less oppressors. The country had become one vast field of 
massacre, rapine and incendiarism, attended with all their 
shocking details that the Moslem mind could conceive. 
To these horrors were added famine, pestilence and 
earthquake. The magnificent Ani was destroyed by 
earthquake ; Edessa, the cradle of Christianity in Arme- 
nia, was bui-ned to the ground together with its numer- 
ous suburbs, and the populace were put to the sword or 
carried into captivity. The hideous calamities which 
befell Armenia after the fall of the Bagaratian dynasty 
cannot oe described. 

The Rubenians preserved an autonomous governmeiit 



akmenia's ordeal 2S 

in Cilicia for two hundred and ninety-four years, with 
a short interval of Greek domination. This little king- 
dom had to contend with three powerful foes, only one 
of which would be sufficient to ruin any such diminutive 
state. The first was the almost incessant Moslem incur- 
sions; the second, the Greek hostilities; and the third, 
the Roman Catholic missionaries who created discord and 
strife among the Armeninas, and fomented a great many 
internal troubles. These missionaries endeavored to have 
the Armenian Church recognize the supremecy of the 
Roman papacy, and accept the doctrines of the Romish 
Church in place of those handed down by Gregory the 
Illuminator and the early fathers. These troubles deve- 
loped particularly in the days of Hethoum II. 

During the reign ot Leon I., the Greeks dealt another 
fatal blow to Armenian autonomy. Emperor Johannes 
Porphyrogenitus marched upon Cilicia at the head of a 
vast army, determined to crush the heretic Armenians 
and to put an end to their self-government. After a 
brave struggle the little kingdom was conquered, and the 
King w^as carried into captivity together with hi3 two 
youthful sons, Ruben and Thoros ; and all three w^ere im- 
prisoned in Constantinople, A. D, 1137. Thus the mar- 
tyred Armenian nation was deprived of its sole refuge 
on earth, and lost the little comfort that it enjoyed, 
Leon I. died in captivity, and Ruben was poisoned, 

Thoros made his escape from captivity and went to 
Cilicia. He revealed his identity to a priest, and imme- 
diately about ten thousand armed Armenians joyfully 
gathered around him, anxious to shake off the intolerable 
Greek yoke . Within a short time the Greeks v^ere 
driven out of the country, and Cilicia was once more free 



24 Armenia's ordeal 

with Thoros II. as king. When through emissaries it 
was asked of Thoros what amount would he accept for 
the ransom of the Emperor's generals whom he held cap- 
tives, the young King replied with disdain : "I am sur- 
prised to learn that my captives are of any value for the 
Emperor. They are not worth anything for me ; I cap- 
tured them so easily. But since the Emperor desires to 
have them, he can get them from me for any amount of 
money that he thinks they ever merit." In order not to 
humiliate the noted prisoners, a large ransom was paid, 
which Thoros ordered to be distributed to his warriors 
In the presence of the Greek emissaries who brought the 
money; and, turning to the Emperor's representatives, 
said: "I give this sum to my brave soldiers that, if need 
be, again they bring your generals to me." 

As has been already alluded to, during the reign of 
the Rubenians there was a great deal of internal distur- 
bances provoked by the Roman Catholic missionaries and 
their adherents who advocated the union of the Church 
of Armenia with that of Rome. These missionaries 
were called Uniters. 

As the Armenians suffered very much by the Moslem 
incursions, these Uniters made promises that if the Ar- 
menians should accept the supremacy of the Pope, His 
Holiness would exert his influence with the European 
sovereigns to help the Armenians against the Moslems. 
There was a faction among the Armenians who placed 
faith in such promises and were quite willing to sell the 
independence of their national church in consideration of 
such assistance, but the vast majority would not hear 
such bargaining. 

King Hethoum II., who was a crafty man, endeavored 



Armenia's ordeal 25 

to please the Pope and enlist his sympathy in support of 
his kingdom. In his efforts to gain the Pope's favor, he 
was so hypocritical that he became a monk and dissem- 
bled profound religiousness ; he feigned reluctance to rule, 
and abdicating the throne, retired into a monastery, 
seemingly to lead the life of a recluse. In the meantime 
he employed all means in his power to introduce such 
changes into the Church of Armenia, as would satisfy 
the Pope and induce him to come to his assistance a- 
gainst the Moslems, Constantine II. , the Armenian Pon- 
tiff, rebuked Hethoum for his hypocricy," and perfidy to 
the national Church, The saintly( !) Hethoum avenged 
himself by deposing and banishing the venerable Pontiff; 
and then he got some one else placed upon the Pontificial 
throne, that he might be able the better to operate his 
designs. 

During the time when Hethoum had retired into a 
monastery, one of his brothers, Thoros III,, was the 
king, but it was the tricky Hethoum that actually reign- 
ed over Cilicia, After a while Hethoum and Thoros ex- 
changed their places ; Thoros entered the monastery, and 
Hethoum once more ascended the throne. 

Noticing Hethoum's inclinations. Emperor Andronicus 
desired to have a grasp upon Hethoum, whom he consi- 
dered a convenient tool for drawing the Armenians into 
the Greek Church, and he requested that one of He- 
thoum's sisters be given in marriage to his son, Michael. 
Hethoum was quick in accepting this proposition, * and 
he degraded himself and the honor of the state so much 
as to ship to Constantinople two of his sisters, Mary and 
Thepany, fifteen ard thirteen years of age respectively, 
lea^, ing Michael to pick out his choice of the two. Mary 



26 Armenia's ordeal 

was wedded to Michael, and Thepany to another Greek 
prince; and both were reconjBrmed after the Greek fa- 
shion, in 1296. The youthful Thepany died soon after 
her marriage. 

After these matrimonial alliances, Hethoum went to 
Constantinople, together with Thoros, and appointed 
Sumpad, one of his brothers, regent during his absence. 
Hethoum made this journey evidently to ascertain the 
prospects of a religious bargain with the Emperor of the 
Greeks. Hethoum's impious policy was a source of dis- 
content for his subjects, and in his absence a couj) cVetat 
was effected by the crowning of Sumpad as king of Cili- 
cia at the hands of Catholicos Gregory "VII., and He- 
thoum was declared deposed. Returning to Cilicia, He- 
thoum found himself divested of his royal authority, 
and decided to apply to the Khan of the Moguls, the 
ally of the Armenians, and ask him to come and 
reinstate him. To defeat this wicked design, the go- 
vernment was obliged to imprison Hethoum and Thoros. 
The latter died about this time, and it was said that he 
was killed. May be this was true, and may be it was 
not true and the rumor was spread by the Uniters simply 
to injure King Sumpad III. There was another rumor 
set afloat, which got into history as fact, that Hethoum's 
eyes were gouged out by order of the King ; but, after 
Hethoum's release, it was seen that his eyes were alright, 
and the Uniters gave out that he recovered his eyes by 
miracle ! — Just the man on whom God should have 
wrought a miracle ! Since the Uniters invented this story 
and got it into history as fact, they could have just as 
easily invented the fable of the murder of Thoros. 

After a reign of two years, Sumpad III. was deposed 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 27 

and succeeded by another brother, Constantine II. Cons- 
tantino was kind to Hethoum and released him, but the 
Uniters soon deposed Constantine and reinstated He- 
thoum II. The self-same Hethoum who some time ago 
was such a pious man that he would abdicate the throne, 
now banished both of his brothers to Constantinople that 
he might be safe against any further attempt for his de- 
position, (1300). Sumpad and Constantine were commit- 
ted to the care of the Emperor of the Greeks. They 
lived in Constantinople as prisoners, and ere long both 
of them died, — I hope by natural causes. 

The wily Hethoum kept on with his designs for Ro- 
manizing the Church of Armenia for the purpose of in- 
ducing the Pope to help him against the Moslems.* Once 

* How badly Hethoum must have been deceived by the Unit- 
ers regarding the moral influence of the popes upon the Euro- 
pean sovereigns! Hethoum was making all hazardous efforts 
to gain the favor of the Pope of Rome, believing that a mere 
wink from the Pope to the European sovereigns would be suffi- 
cient to strike a fatal blow to Mohammedanism. How menda- 
cious the Uniters must have been! In Hethoum's time the pa- 
pacy had fallen to a very humiliating state. The Pope was dis- 
regarded, and he had to send to the French king bull after bull, 
expostulating that his authority was to be regarded, that he 
was the "vicar of God" (in God's absence), that "every human 
being was subject to the Roman pontiff, and to believe this was 
necessary for salvation," &c. &c. While, on the other hand, 
King Philip took one of these bulls sent by the "vicar of God" 
and got it publicly burned. Besides this, the King wrote an 
answer to the Pope, beginning his message in such manner : 
''Philip, by the grace of God, king of the French, to Boniface, 
who giveth himself out for sovereign pontiff, little or no 
greeting. Let thy Extreme Fatuity know that we be subject 
to none, &c., &c." Hethoum did not know that the Pope, on 
whom he had fixed his hopes and expectations, was undergoing 
the last stage of a prophesy pronounced upon him by his pre- 



38 .rmenia's ordeal 

more Hethoum found it necessary to abdicate, and he 
placed upon the throne his young nephew, Leon IV. 
who acted as a mere tool in his uncle's hand; and 
Hethoum himself assumed the regency, (1305). Catholi- 
cos Gregory YII., who had taken a hand in Hethoum's 
deposition, shortly died, and a plan of reforming the 
Church was produced, the authorship of which was at- 
tributed to the deceased Pontiff. 

A convention of about forty bishops, several prominent 
monks, and many nobles, assembled in the cathedral of 
St. Sophia, in Sis, for the purpose of electing a successor 
to the deceased Catholicos. There the King and his re- 
gent proclaimed to the assemblage their intention of put- 
ting into execution the plan of reforms said to have been 
prepared by the late Pontiff. The convention feared to 
raise objections, and silence being taken for assent, the 
proposed changes were immediately ordered to be put 
into practice The order was carried out within the bor- 
ders of Cilicia, and the changes were received every- 
where with demonstrations of popular indignation; and 
the result was strife, and even bloodshed. The arbitrary 
action of the King and his regent, and their abuse of po- 
Tver, — and that in such a grave matter, — were soon de- 
nounced from the pulpits. 

The commander of the Scythian army stationed at Ana- 
zarpa, heard that Hethoum and Leon were entering into 
a league with the Europeans ; he was alarmed lest some- 
thing serious should result. He invited Hethoum and 
Leon to visit him for the purpose of conferring on some 

decessor, the infallible Pope Celestine V., in the following words: 
'Thou risest like a fox; thou wilt rule like a lion, and die like 
a dog." (See GnizoV^ History (?/" France, vol, ii. pp. 120-131.) 



Armenia's ordeal 29 

weighty affair. "When Hethoum and Leon went to the 
Scythian cammander, both of them were massacred toge- 
ther with their forty attendants. 

Unfortunately for the nation, these troubles did not 
terminate here. The successors of Hethoum II. did not 
take lesson from the evil consequences of his ruinous po- 
licy. They were deceived by the Uniters regarding the 
power of the Pope, and were led to believe that the Pope 
"was the mightiest ruler who commanded all the sove- 
reigns of Europe; their eyes were upon him, and they 
■were eager to persuade the people in some way to ack- 
nowledge the supremecy of the Pope, and thus secure 
the Pope's favor, which tantalized them. And in this 
very period the Roman papacy was in its sixty years' 
''Babylonish captivity" in Avignon. 

In striving to gain the sympathy of the popes, the 
kings of Cilicia lost the hearts of their own subjects. 
The kingdom of Cilicia had been maintained for more 
than two centuries without the aid of popes, and it could 
be maintained much longer if the kings had been wise 
enough to trust in God and have faith in their own peo- 
ple ; and to endeavor to have the confidence of the Arme- 
nians, instead of running on the fool's errand. 

Hethoum's successors sent letters, and even deputa- 
tions, to the popes in Avignon, describing their dire si- 
tuation and the urgency of immediate Christian help a- 
gainst the Moslems. The popes made promises freely, 
but could fulfil none. All they did was to send addi- 
tional missionaries to see that the Armenian Church 
would be engulfed in the Roman. 

These unprofitable negotiations not only disturbed the 
Armenian people, but also alarmed the Moslems lest the 



30 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Armenians get up an European crusade against them. 
The Moslems increased their efforts to break up the king- 
dom of Cilicia, and the incursions grew more frequent. 
The government of Cilicia had ceased to be an Arme- 
nian government, and had become a tyranny. The kings 
had become the servants of the Roman papacy, not be- 
cause they cared a jot for popery, but for the reason that 
they wanted to get the help of the popes, — the help that 
never came. The kings made every effort to make Ro- 
man Catholics out of the Armenians. They allowed 
themselves to be guided by the Uniters, and tyrannized 
upon the Church of Armenia in a manner as though the 
government was a Catholic one. In short, the people 
suffered religious persecution at the hands of the kings. 
The Catholicos had lost his significance, and having no 
temporal power, he was at the mercy of the kings. The 
people and the clergy clung fast to the national Church, 
and struggled for the preservation of its purity. They 
did this not because they knew of the incapacity of the 
popes for helping them, but for the simple reason that 
they would not have the sort of Christian help that was 
being offered, — a help which could be had only by set- 
ting their conscience aside and trading religion. The 
Armenians did believe that if they should become Roman 
Catholics, the great Pope, who commanded the European 
sovereigns, would promptly succor them ; and that their 
lot would be far better from a worldly standpoint. But 
they preferred to face the worst as the true followers of 
the blessed cross, rather than seek refuge under the 
wings of such Christians who could persecute an already 
persecuted Christian nation, and would constrain them to 
submit to their own religious authority. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 31 

At this time the Armenian Patriarchy of Jerusalem 
■was established by Bishop Sarkis of the Holy City, in or- 
der to defend the Church against the audacious intru- 
sions of the impious kings of Cilicia, (1311). The exas- 
perated Armenians, both the military and the civilians, 
arose against the government in defense of the Church of 
Christ "which was the price of the blood of their brave 
forefathers, and the glory of the Armenian nation." 
Within two years (1343-1345,) they killed two kings, 
namely, Constantine III. and Guidon. 

King Constantine IV. (1345-1362,) was a true Arme- 
nian, and he made every effort to save the decaying 
kingdom from its doom. He helped the Catholicos to 
call conventions to repeal and expunge all the popish 
forms and tenets which had been but recently forced into 
the Armenian churches in Cilicia by his predecessors. 
Constantine IV. did not pay attention to the bulls sent 
by the popes of Avignon, inviting the Armenian nation 
to the true path of salvation, of which the Armenians 
have had too much and had found that it led to nothing 
but perdition. The Armenian churches in Cilicia assum- 
ed their former appearance, being cleansed from all fo- 
reign additions. An era of regeneration seemed to be 
dawning. The policy of Constantine IV. had marked 
beneficial effect upon the condition of the decrepit state, 
and the important castles of Ayas and Alexandretta, 
which had fallen in the hands of the Mameluks some 
time since, were recovered. 

'^ On the death of Constantine I v". Cilicia once more 
fell into a disturbed state. The Uniters bacame very 
active and created endless troubles regarding the succes-" 
sion, which remained in suspense for three years. The 



33 Armenia's ordeal 

Uniters fought hard to get a Latin prince on the throne ; 
and Latin princes claiming relationship on their mothers' 
side with the Armenian royal family, flocked from Cyp- 
rus eager to get the crovm by the help of the Roman mis- 
sionaries. The Uniters spared no efforts, imagining them- 
selves not far from ultimate success. In this struggle 
the condition of the kingdom grew worse and worse. 
Many of the conservative nobles and thousands of the 
people became so disgusted with the state of affairs that 
they forsook their beloved homes and emigrated towards 
Armenia proper and elsewhere. 

After a struggle of three years, the Uniters succeeded 
in getting upon the throne a Latin prince, Leon Lusig- 
nan of Cyprus. Leon VI. was not disposed to meddle 
with matters of religion. The end of the Cilician king- 
dom was at hand. Cilicia was enfeebled by emigration, 
and demoralized by dissension and strife. The kingdom 
could no more defend itself against the violent Moslem 
invasions. In 1374 Melik-el-Eshref Shaban, the sultan 
of the Mameluks, invaded Cilicia with an immense force. 
The country was laid waste, and the inhabitants were 
butchered without regard for sex or age. Even the 
decaying bones of the dead were not left undisturbed 
in their graves ; the savage invaders opened the tombs of 
the kings of Cilicia and taking out the bones, burned 
them up. The flourished cities Mamesdia, Adana, Tar- 
sus and Sis were transformed to ruins.* Leon VI., the 

* For so many centuries Moslem races have been the masters 
of Armenia, Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, &c., and all 
through the time of their domination they have demolished and 
destroyed all the glorious works of former ages. When they 
entered these countries they found them in a highly flourished 
condition, and they reduced them to ruins. On the site of ma- 



Armenia's ordeal 33 

king, who had taken refuge in Fort Gaban, after being 
besieged for about nine months, surrendered and was 
taken to Egypt in chains together with his queen and 
daughter. Armenian autonomy was ultimately lost, and 
Cilicia was at the mercy of her conquerors. 

Heaps of ashes were left to the victorious Uniters. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CHURCH AS THE PRESERVER OF THE NATIONALITY. 

After the fall of the Armenian kingdom, the Catholic 
faith lost ground in Cilicia. It owed its sway to the tyr- 
anny of the kings. The Armenians could no more be 
constrained to become Roman Catholics.* After that 

tj 
ny magnificent cities now stand, if aught stands at all, groups 
of pitiful cottages and shanties. Let the Ottomans show one, 
and only one town that has been founded and ilourished un- 
der their domination exclusively by Moslems. The myriads of 
dogs night and day barking all over the Empire, the harems, 
— those establishments of debauchery, — the narrow and filthy 
streets, and the still filthier hearts of government officials are 
the only glory of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks can not point 
to the palaces of the sultans as their own productions, for they 
were built bj' Armenian architects, Armenian skill, and with 
money squeezed out of the oppressed Christians of the Empire. 
In the face of these undeniable facts there are still found Eu- 
ropeans and Americans, — children of modern civilization, — who 
are not ashamed of themselves to come out before the world 
with a good word for the "noble Turk." 

* There is now a schismatic body of Roman Catholic Arme- 
nians who have a patriarch in Constantinople; but it is not the 
fruit of the Catholic missionaries of the XIV. century. The Ro- 
man faith was introduced among Armenians anew in the XVIII. 
century,"^ and the Catholic patriarchy of Constantinople was 



34 akmenia's ordeal 

in all the trials of their national life, the Armenians 
clung fast to their Church. The magnetic tenacity 
-which the national Church had upon the hearts of the 
Armenians became the means of preserving their nation- 
ality in spite of the furious flood of Mohammedanism 
-which threatened to engulf those nations that came on its 
way. The Church became the focus of a powerful inter- 
nal union and the strongest bond of brotherhood where- 
by the nation was enabled to resist and survive all ca- 
lamities, although sustaining great loss. 

The Armenians looked upon their national Church as 
a covenant between themselves and their God, into 
which they could not tolerate any outside interference; 
and it was impossible for the nation, as a whole, ever to 
entertain the idea of making use of the Church for 
worldly advantages. The Armenians preserved their 
national Church with the greatest jealousy, and the 
Church preserved them as a seperate and distinct people. 
So long as they remained faithful to the Church there 
was no fear for their commingling with the dominant 
races of a widely different religion. 

The Armenians understood Christianity as a bond bet- 
ween a brotherly union and God ; and they greatly shun- 
ned the very thought of being ruled by, or ruling other 
peoples through the instrumentality of the Church. It 
was on account of this belief that the demand of the Ro- 

founded in 1831. The Roman Catholic Armenians have sundered 
all relations with the Armenian nation, and they are so much 
alienated that they prefer to speak in Turkish rather than in the 
language of Haig, Tigrane, Abgar, and Vartan. When asked 
what nationality they belong to, they will answer: "I belong 
to the Catholic nation," They are styled as the Catholic nation 
of Turkey. 



Armenia's ordeal 35 

man and Greek Churches of having jurisdiction over the 
Church of Armenia was considered outrageous and un- 
christian. The Armenians abhorred the idea of making 
Christianity the means of worldly domination, which was 
contrary to Christ's injunction: "The princes of the 
Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are 
great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not ie so 
among you.'''' [Matt. xx. 25-26). 

The Armenians well comprehended the spirit of the 
Saviour's commandment that, "Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
They denied the right of the Roman or the Greek Church 
of having jurisdiction over the Church of Armenia, and 
they never demanded to have jurisdiction over the peo- 
ples that were converted into Christianity by Armenians. 
Various neighboring nations were converted into Chris- 
tianity by Armenian monks who would go and preach 
the gospel with every Christian self-denial, without be- 
ing backed by missionary organizations or funds, just 
like the apostles; and the Armenian Church would be 
but happy to see those jDcoples have their own independ- 
ent bishops and patriarchs. The Church of Armenia has 
never demanded to have jurisdiction on any of them for 
the purpose of deriving revenues therefrom.* 

• The Abyssinians are one of the nations converted Into Chris- 
tianity by Armenians, and they recognize the Church of Arme- 
nia as the mother Church, j^et the Church of Armenia has not 
demanded to have jurisdiction upon them. The Armenian Ca- 
tholicos does not claim to posses the patented kej^s of Heaven. 
The Greek and Roman Churches have been making efforts in the 
recent years to take the Abj^ssinians under their authority ; but 
the Ab3'ssinians still look to the Church of Armenia. The pre- 
sent Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople wears upon his 
breast a cross which is the gift of the Emperor of Abyssinia^ 



36 Armenia's ordeal 

PART SECOND. 
AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AMONG ARMENIANS. 



When nations are to perish in their sins, 
'Tis in the church the leprosy begins: 
The priest, whose office is with zeal sincere 
To watch the fountain, and preserve It clear, 
Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brink. 
While others poison what the flock must drink; 
***** 

His unsuspecting sheep believe it pure, 
And tainted by the very means of cure. 
Catch from each other a contagious spot, 
The foul forerunner of a general rot. 

COWPER. 



CHAPTER I. 



BEGINNING THE WORK. 



After centuries of suffering at the hands of the Zoro- 
astrian fire-worshippers, the Mohammedans, the Greek 
and Roman Churches, the Armenian nation was to re- 
ceive another blow from the Christians of America. 

This last blow did not come like its various precedents 
in the shape of tyrannizing force, but rather like a wast- 
ing disease which consumes one's vital strength and 
prostrates the victim gradually to sink and die. This 
blow was the one dealt by the missionaries of the 
American Board, who entered into the home of the 



Armenia's ordeal 37 

Armenians like lambs, but tore them up like wolves. 

They created discord and schism. They set the son 
in defiance to his father; they raised the flock against 
the shepherd ; the brother against the brother. They 
taught the pious Armenian to scorn and despise what 
he had learned to be sacred and holy. The result of this 
was spiritual and moral degradation and degeneration. 

The introduction of Protestantism among the Armen- 
ians have had more ruinous effect on the nation than any- 
thing else ever had. Protestantism was justly branded by 
the nation with the name 2iorod, as an abbreviation for the 
word Protestant, and meaning in the Armenian language 
leprous; and forsooth, its effect upon the body of the 
nation was of the leprous character. 

To one who makes a close study of the history of the 
missionary work in Turkey, it will appear that the Ame- 
rican missionaries went there not to give the natives 
the Gospel, but to give them their own form of religion, 
no matter whether it would do them good or evil. 

The missionaries were determined to impose their re- 
ligion upon the people in Turkey, and knowing that 
they could not accomplish their purpose honestly, they 
employed dishonest methods, and approached to their 
victims with cunning and deceit. The missionaries of 
the American Board, before entering Turkey, started a 
printing establishment in the island of Malta, in the Me- 
diterranean, where they printed school books in the Ori- 
ental languages for circulation in Turkey. They left 
America as missionaries, but they did not begin work 
among the peoples of the East as such. They employed 
falsehood. They professed to have gone there simply 
for educational work, intending to open schools for edu- 



38 Armenia's ordeal 

eating the native children, and to jirint school books. 
In Malta they had an opportunity to learn something 
about the natives of Turkey, and accordingly they laid 
their plans for the future. Their plan was to begin 
their work in the disguise of promoters of education, and 
nothing more. There was no prospect for laboring a- 
mong the Mohammedans without putting their lives in 
jeopardy; and that would not do for them. Therefore, 
their attention was attracted chiefly by the Christians 
of Turkey. They meant to carry on their w^ork among 
the Christians. But how could they get support from 
the Christians of America for the purpose of converting 
Christians from one form into another? Oh, that was 
easy enough for them: they could misrepresent the na- 
tive Christians ; they could publish to America injurious 
reports regarding their moral and religious condition; 
they could calumniate them as nominal Chris- 
tians, idolaters, heathens, and all that sort of 
thing ; they could weave their stories with menda- 
cities, and could strain the pockets of American Chris- 
tians by their artificial lamentations for the lost people 
of Turkey. 

The plan of the missionaries for their work among the 
Christians in Turkey was as follows: They were "de- 
termined not to call them [the native Christians] forth 
into opposition by a proselyting and controversial 
course,"* but to win some of them and get them into 
fighting with their own brethren. f "There is no doubt," 
they wrote from Malta, "but the Oriental churches will 
enjoy whatever benefit [ !] religious controversy is able 
to impart. * "^ * Let members of those churches acquire a 

* Missionary Herald ioT 1830, p. 117. ^: ^^ss. Her. for 1330 p. 18. 



Armenia's ordeal 3^ 

perception and love of truth, [the kind of truth that 
these missionaries were going to teach,] and they will 
defend it and ATTACK whatever opposes it. The mis- 
sionary's aim should be to raise such champions among 
the people." * 

This plan, as set forth in their own words, is sufficient 
to demonstrate that the missionaries entered among the 
Christians of Turkey Mnth mischief in their mind. They 
were going to win a few persons and use them as cat's 
paw. They were going to create strife and conflict a- 
monsr the natives and then fish in the troubled waters. 
Dhide et impera was their policy. There w^as no such 
doctrine in the Gospel that the Armenians possessed, 
but perhaps the version w^hich the missionaries held in 
their hands taught them so. The Gospel which the Ar- 
menians acknowledged taught them: "Blessed are the 
peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of 
God." Let the reader think for himself whose children 
would be those that break up the peace and create strife. 

Before starting the first mission in Constantinople, 
Messrs. Smith and D wight, two missionaries of the 
American Board, traveled in Asia Minor and Armenia for 
the purpose of learning the general condition of the peo- 
ples living therein ; not to study their needs, but to spy 
their weaknesses and accordingly contrive means for 
storming their fortifications. Their eyes were set on the 
Catholicos in Etchmiadzin even before starting on their 
journey from Malta. If they could only win the head 
of the Armenians in some way ! They went as far as 
Etchmiadzin to see the Holy Pontiff. The monks of the 
great monastery of Etchmiadzin received these strangers 

* Missionary Herald for 1S30, p. 178. 



40 Armenia's ordeal 

with the kind hospitality peculiar to the Armenians, es- 
pecially in those times. The disguised missionaries were 
accommodated with lodgings and meals. They expressed 
their desire to have an audience of the Pontiff, but Ca- 
tholicos Eprem would not see them. The trick which 
these missionaries were going to play, was already played 
out in the neighborhood of Etchmiadzin. Some years 
prior to this (1830) German missionaries had gone to 
Shoosha on the pretext of converting the Mohammedans. 
They made the acquaintance of the Armenians, and pro- 
posed them to open a school for the Armenian children ; 
the unsuspecting Armenians consented to this thankfully. 
The school was opened and the service of Boghos Var- 
tabed, a learned monk, was secured to teach. Ere long 
they wanted to introduce into the school some novel re- 
ligious teachings; the Vartabed (monk) discovered that 
these foreigners meant to pervert the Armenians from 
their faith while working in the innocent guise of pro- 
moters of educational work, and he left them warning 
his people of their real object. 

Dwight and Smith were disappointed in their scheme. 
They had but one opportunity to see the Holy Pontiff 
from a distance, and that was on the Sunday following 
their arrival, when his Holiness oflS.ciated in the Cathe- 
dral of Etchmiadzin. The disappointed missionaries 
broke their vengeance on the Catholicos by publishing 
in the Missionary Herald a frantic attack on the solemn 
religious services which they witnessed without under- 
standing them. On this occasion they wrote the follow- 
ing: 

"The spirit of the monastery of Etchmiazin differs but 
little, if at all, from that of the Papal See at Rome, 



Armenia's ordeal 41 

* * * In Turkey we imagine that the Armenians, at pre- 
sent, feel but little the authority of the patriarch at 
Etchmiazin, [because the spirit of the monastery at 
Etchmiadzin was not like that of the Papal See at 
Rome,] and before long they may be entirely separate 
from his control, [and fall under the control of the mis- 
sionaries, eh?] We confidently hope that the Lord may 
open a v/ay [by breaking up the authority of the Catho- 
licos or something of that kind,] by which successful 
missionary efforts will be carried on among the Armen- 
ians in that country." * 

Returning from this journey, the missionaries of the 
American Board started a mission in Constantinople. 
Goodell and Dwight were the first missionaries that es- 
tablished themselves in Constantinoi:)le, — together with 
their families, of course. The missionaries always receive 
good salaries and, as all commodities are very cheap in 
Turkey, they can afford to live in high style. They 
concealed their mission and their object of proselyting 
the natives into a new form of religion, and lived in 
Constantinople like gentlemen of leisure. They began 
to enter into relations of a purely personal character 
with the natives. Armenians who excel their compatriots 
of other nationalities t in their hospitality and kindness 
to strangers, especially to Christians, were soon befriend- 

* Missionary Herald for 1831. p. 246. 

t One's nationality is distinguished in Turkey by the church 
and religion one belongs to. Those who accept the Moslem 
faith become Turks, and those who join the Greek Church are 
recognized as Greeks. Those who join the Armenian Church 
become naturalized Armenians. However, it is of very seldom 
occurrence that an alien should join the Church of Armenia; for 
Armenians make no effort at all to win others into their 



42 Armenia's ordeal 

ed by the missionaries, while the Greeks, who were not 
less crafty in religious matters than these missionaries, 
looked on them suspiciously. The doors of the highest 
Armenian society in Constantinople were thrown open 
before them. These chelebeea (gentlemen) were cordially 
received by priest and laymen alike ; and the Armenian 
Patriarch of Constantinople, who, besides his exalted 
ecclesiastical function, is the civil head of the Armenians 
throughout the Ottoman Empire, became one of their 
sincere friends on whom they could call whenever they 
wished. 

The cautiousness with which the missionaries acted 
in the beginning lest the natives suspect the true nature 
of their intentions, is peculiar to thieves. They intro- 
duced themselves to the Armenians as Christian clergy- 
men from America who had taken so deep an interest in 
them that they had left their home and had come from 
the other side of the world to live with the Armenians 
and promote education among them. Armenians being 
a people who give high value to education, and there 
being at that time an educational rnovement on foot a- 
mong them, these presumed Philarmenians were receiv- 
ed with delight ; and some Armenian priests even offered 
them pecuniary assistance for the printing of the New 
Testament which was used in the Armenian schools as a 
text-book. The missionaries had a printing establish- 
ment where they printed parts of the New Testament, 
the Psalms, school books and religious tracts of a neu- 

Church. Armenians, as a race, all being in the national Church 
preserved their racial distinction through the Church. Armen- 
ians are a race, but the Turks are not. The Turks are a mix- 
ture of very many varieties of races and their nationality con- 
sists in their religion. 



Armenia's ordeal 43^ 

tral character, containing nothing objectionable to the 
Armenians, as they did not treat of doctrines. But the 
missionaries, in their reports published in the Missionanj 
Herald^ speaking of the priests offering them money for 
the printing of the Scriptures, give the misleading im- 
pression that the priests did it because they recognized 
that their people were in need of being evangelized by 
the missionaries, and gave their donations for that end. 

The missionaries attended the Armenian churches, 
particularly the cathedral of the Holy Mother of the 
Lord, opposite the Armenian Patriarchate at Koum-Ka- 
pou. The Armenian clergy evidently had the impression 
that these strangers had taken such a liking to the Ar- 
menians that, in course of time, they would join the Ar- 
menian Church and become Armenians. The missiona- 
ries, in order to gain the perfect confidence of the Ar- 
menians, seem to have encouraged such expectations. 

On New Year's Day, 1835, (O. S.,) the missionaries 
Goodell and Dwight attended religious services in the 
cathedral at Koum-Kapou. Patriarch Stephen, who 
was oflaciating at the altar, sent word to the two Ame- 
ricans inviting them to call on him at the Patriarchate 
after the services were over. This was a particular 
honor to these Americans; for the Patriarch would be 
very busy on New Year's Day receiving distinguished 
persons, and could not receive every body. The behavior 
of the missionaries towards the Armenians and their 
church was of a nature that made the Patriarch quite 
confident that they were going to become Armenians by 
joining the Church ; therefore, he had made up his mind 
regarding their future : — he meant to receive them into 
the Church not as mere laymen, but also as clergymen, 



44 Armenia's ordeal 

as they already were ; so that, tkey might the better be 
useful in their educational efforts. The Patriarch seems to 
have recognized their clerical ordination to be valid ; for 
he treated them as he would treat the clergy of other 
sister Churches. On one occasion a bishop invited one 
of the missionaries present in the church to take an ec- 
clesiastical mantle on himself; the missionary declined, 
which the Armenians attributed to his modesty. The 
poor Patriarch! he took these men for the honest gentle- 
men that they appeared to be. But how could he im- 
agine that those strangers were disguised missionaries 
with religious designs, since they concealed their real 
object and appeared like men who spoke but the truth. 
The missionaries that day called on the Patriarch and 
were received with kindness. Taking their leave from 
His Holiness, Messrs. Goodell and Dwight next called 
on the Vicar of the Patriarch and had a pleasant conver- 
sation in the course of which Mr. Goodell told to the 
Vicar that Mr. Dwight had already acquired the know- 
ledge of the Armenian language and had altogether tecome 
■an Armenian, and that it was time for the Vicar to take 
him and baptize him. The Vicar was not surprised ; he 
knew it was going to come to this ; he replied that the 
Armenian Church accepted Mr. Dwight without bap- 
tising him anew, the former baptism being recognized 
to be valid. They had a little more talk and before they 
left, the Vicar turned to Mr. Dwight and informed him 
that, by and by, he was to become a preacher to the 
Armenians. * 

*"We afterwards called upon the wakeel [vicar]. Mr. Goodell 
told him that as I have now learned the Armenian language, 1 
had become altogether an Armenian. 'And you,' added Mr. G.. 



Armenia's ordeal 45 

The Church of Armenia has no formalities for initia- 
ting one who wishes to join the Church. If one goes to 
an Armenian clergyman and declares himself to be an 
Armenian, — an Armenian in sentiment and belief, — and 
wishes to join the Armenian Church, the clergyman re- 
ceives him, and if he is not already baptized in any o- 
ther Christian Church, baptizes him, and that makes him 
an Armenian acd a child of the Church of Armenia. If 
the convert is already baptized in any other Christian 
Church, the verbal declaration of the priest made to the 
convert that he is accepted by the Church is sufficient to 
make him a child of the Church. There are no formali- 
ties for receiving any one in the Church; there is no 
church membership. The Armenians are called the child- 
ren of the Church, not members. 

Now, the conversation which the missionaries had 
with the Vicar, legally made Mr. Dwight a child of the 
Church of Armenia, — a convert. Mr. Goodell told the 
Vicar that Mr. Dwight had learned the Armenian and 
had become an Armenian altogether, and that it was 
time that he should be baptized and formally made an 
Armenian. The Vicar having no doubt of their hones- 
ty, declared Mr. Dwight accepted without baptizing 
anew. That finished the business. Dwight was pro- 
posed to be admitted in the Church and he was received 
by the Church. 

'must take him and baptise him.' 'By no means,' replied the 
wakeel, 'we accept him without. The Greeks would baptise 
him again, but with us It is unnecessary.' We had a familiar 
conversation for some time, when the wakeel, with a thoughtful 
and peculiar expression of countenance, turned to me and said 
'You will, by and by, become a preacher to the Armenians.' " 
— Rev. H .G. O. Dwight, Missionary Herald for 1S36. p. 47. 



46 Armenia's ordeal 

What was the meaning of this mischief? A mission- 
ary joined the Church of Armenia, in Constantinople; 
and other missionaries went about in Syria, wearing 
white turbans on their heads, the emblem of Moham- 
medan theologians, for which they were arrested by the 
Moslem religious authorities and were rebuked for their 
hypocrisy. * 

After the conversion of Mr. Dwight the visits of Ar- 
menian priests to these Americans w^ere more frequent. 
One of the Americans had already joined the Church, as 
the Armenians believed, and the conversion of the o- 
thers was in prospect. Armenian priests visited them 
often with a view to instil into their minds the Christian 
truth as recognized by the Church of Armenia ; of which, 
indeed, these missionaries were in great need, and subse- 
quently showed their incapacity to comprehend the true 
spirit of Christianity, which teaches us to sacrifice our 
own interests for the benefit of our brethren; whereas, 
as it will be seen, they pursued a course to the contrary. 

Such visits paid to the disguised missionaries by Ar- 
menian priests and laymen, under these circumstances, 
were reported in the Missionary Herald as though the 
visitors were coming to them to learn of them the Chris- 
tian truth. But this was an untruth and an impossibi- 
lity since the missionaries had not introduced them- 
selves as the teachers of any religion ; and the fact that 
these visits were discontinued and the personal friends 
grew cold as soon as the real designs of the missionaries 
were discovered is alone sufficient to disprove those mis- 
leading reports, and to evince that the visitors were not 
coming to learn religion from them. 

* See Missionary Herald for 1825, p. 24. 



Armenia's ordeal 47 

Under such circumstances the first missionaries made 
their survey of their surroundings, and it did not take 
them very long to determine that the Armenians were a 
soft and a simple people of whom they could make an 
"easy job;" while the Jews, the Mohammedans and 
the Greeks looked on them suspiciously, and kept 
themselves aloof. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE MODE OF EVANGELIZATION. 

The highest aim of religion is, according to my con- 
ception, to help a man to lead a pure life, to restrain 
him in the destructive passions of the body, to ennoble 
and elevate him spiritually. The religion which fails 
to accomplish this noble purpose is bound to turn a 
curse, for "he that gathereth not with me scattereth 
abroad." The Church of Armenia had accomplished 
this purpose more than any other Church that I know of. 

The plain, pure, clear and conscientious life led by 
the average Armenian, before the American missionaries 
made their entry among them, was something envi- 
able , and was of a nature that these missionaries 
should have left undisturbed had they been actuated in 
their undertaking by the spirit of Christianity; and 
they should have centered their efforts upon the 
Mohammedans, never fearing the obstacles and perils 
that might come on their path, like the true followers 
of the Cross. 

It is out of my line to essay to prove that the reli- 



48 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL * 

gious doctrines maintained by the Church of Armenia 
are in full harmony with the Gospel, and to contend that 
the teachings of the missionaries were not evangelical. 
I will simply take up the results of missionary labors 
and examine whether they have helped the Armenians 
to moral elevation or degradation. It is not what one 
professes that makes one a true Christian, but if one 
practices the commandments of the Saviour. Profession 
is dead witout practice. 

The Christian life which the Armenians led at the 
time was not in need of modification or reformation a^ 
the hands of the missionaries. Yet the missionaries 
were determined to Protestantize the Armenians, and 
continually they planned to carry their object into effect, 
unmindful of the ruinous effect it would have on the Ar- 
menian nation by creating schism and strife among 
them. 

Protestantism is a revolution — a revolution which was 
the consequence of religious oppression and arbitrary mis- 
rule in the church. A revolution may be a good remedy 
to cure a bad government, but a revolution against a 
good government is an unjustifiable crime. 

The Church of Armenia is constituted entirely different 
from the Roman Church ; it is almost of a democratic 
character, both in principle and in spirit. The Armenian 
clergy have been the good shepherds of the flock — not 
arbitrary rulers ; it is the people who choose the clergy, 
and a man is ordained to the priesthood only by the 
unanimous approval of the people. The relation of the 
people and the ecclesiastic in the Church of Armenia has 
been very much like that between the son and his father. 
To incite the son to rebel against his father, who has al- 



Armenia's ordeal 49 

ways sought his welfare, is not anything to meet the ap- 
proval of God or of men. 

But the American missionaries were not inclined to take 
these circumstances into consideration. They had come 
to dress the Armenians with a garb which was made for 
a people of different form and condition, and could not 
fit the Armenians. They had come to impose their form 
of religion on the people in Turkey, and they meant to 
make prey of those who could be captured with the least 
effort, and the Armenians were marked out as the easiest 
game. 

During their friendly intercourse with the Armenians 
the missionaries sowed their seed with cunninsr, and 
gradually they gave larger and larger pills to their ac- 
quaintances. They gently contended that they did not 
think it was essential for salvation to believe in this, and 
that, and the other ; and gradually they won a few Ar- 
menians whom they taught to disclaim all that was in the 
National Church, and to take only the Gospel, the Word 
of God, and read it and follow it as they understood it 
(of course by the interpretation of the missionaries) . This 
sowing of seed was done chiefly among the poorer and 
ignorant classes, and the missionaries were assisted in the 
work by two young Armenians in their pay. The igno- 
rant men were flattered that they were intelligent enough 
to understand the Gospel, and that it was npt necessary 
for them to mind the priests, who merely sought their 
own personal interests and Avished to keep the people in 
ignorance. The ignorant, being flattered that they pos- 
sessed sound judgment, took the Gospel in their hands 
not prepared to understand its contents, but to seek how 
they could criticise their mother Church, thereby demon- 



50 Armenia's ordeal 

strating their intelligence and mental superiority over the 
priests, who were revered by the masses and who paid 
reverence to the Church. 

Many of the poor were easily won, who flocked around 
th3 missionaries in expectation of jDecuDiary benefit.* 
The missionaries had plenty of money, and those who 
came in touch with them could in some way be benefitted 
by them ; at least they could be emi3loyed by them as 
servants and cooks, (for the missionaries always live in 
^hifjh style,) compositors, printers, bookbinders, book 
p .'ddlers, teachers and preachers, &c. 

The mask at last came off their faces, and it was un- 
derstood that these foreigners had come not to join the 
Church of Armenia, but to tear it into pieces by inciting 
the flock to rebel against the shepherd. The leading 
Armenians and the clergy were sadly disappointed in 
them, and they cooled off in their friendly relations with 
the missionaries. 

Tl e missionaries found success chiefly among the igno- 
rant, and set them in defiance to the mother Church. 
Their converts began to preach the "truth" to the Armen- 
ian people. They had their own mode of preaching. 
They criticized and abused the Church in foul language 
and denounced everything that was in the Church. And 

*Mr. Dwight wrote at the time : — " Man}-, no doubt, claim to be 
Protestants, who have very little acquaintance either with them- 
silves or the truik [he means Protestantism]; but then this is a 
first step, and an important one." (J\Itssionary Herald for 1836, p. 
49.) Now, what was the motive of those many in professing to be 
Protestants when they knew nothing about Protestantism ? 
Surely, they could not be seeking truth. Gospel, or anything of 
the kind ; and they could not have any good motive. Yet this was 
a first step and an important one from the missionary point of 
view. 



Armenia's ordeal 51 

as they were ignorant, they knew no limit wherein to con- 
fine themselves, and began to preach in a clumsy manner. 
They were suddenly divested of their faith, but were not 
clothed with a new one. Their Christianity and piety 
consisted in the abuse and the denunciation of the mother 
Church. They had become like demoniacs; they would 
go about the city and engage in conversation with any 
Armenian, whether a tinker or a tailor, a peddler or a 
sailor, and would question him as to the evangelicality 
of this or that doctrine maintained by the Church of Ar- 
menia. When they found a man who was not familiar 
with the contents of the gospel so much as to be able to 
discuss theological questions, they would ridicule him for 
blindly trusting the priests ; and if they met a man who 
was disinclined to discuss religion he would be insulted 
as an ignorant idolator. 

I will recount some of the innumerable impudences in- 
dulged in by these converts in " preaching the Gospel " : 

One of the leading converts asked of an Armenian 
whether the images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apos- 
tles and Saints adorning the altar and the walls of the 
churches were sacred, and receiving answer in the affirm- 
ative, he asked : ' ' Then how is it that the rats gnaw 
them ?" The Armenian was surprised to hear such a 
crazy question, and was struck dumb. " I tell you what 
those images are good for," added the converted Protest- 
ant, ' ' they are mere canvas, and good to be used as lining 
in my shoes ; they would serve to keep my feet dry." 

Another convert spoke of the cross laughingly and 
said : 

' ' Pooh ! 2:)ooh ! pooh ! The cross ! the cross ! What 
is it? A mere piece of wood! All it is good for is to 



53 Al{ii.E^;iA S ORDEAL 

build a fire with."^ The same man denounced 'the Arme- 
nians for kissing the Gospel in the Church after the ser- 
vices are over, and called them idolators for paying reve- 
rence to a mere book. He said: " The book is nothing 
to kiss, iill we want it for is for its contents. When I 
am through with reading it, this is what I would do.'i 
And saying this he laid down the Bible and sat upon it 
to convince the Armenians that there was nothing about 
the book to call for reverence. There are Armenian 
Protestants in Turkey who will be shocked to hear that 
the Americans perform such heathen rites as kissing the 
Bible in the courts. 

Other converts preached that the communion bread was 
no better than any other bread, and after the congrega- 

*Many 5^ears ago a small Protesta.nt meeting house was built in 
Hass-Keuy, a suburb of Constantinople, and some of the church- 
members thought it appropriate that a cross should be placed on 
the gable to show that the building was a Christian house of wor- 
ship. In the Protestant churches in Turkey generally the mem- 
bers are divided into two parties, namely : the popular party and 
the missionary party. The former maintains that the people have 
rights of their own in the affairs of the Church ; and the latter, 
who are the obsequious servants of the missionaries, do only as 
the missionaries would have them to do. The missionary party 
in this Church opposed the planting of a cross on their meeting 
house, on the ground that it was an idoL They had a hot fight 
over it. This trouble has arisen many a time in many places. I 
hoped it helped them for their spiritual and moral elevation, and 
increased their brotherly love. 

The missionaries did not bring from America this contempt for 
the cross ; they borrowed it from the Turks, who call the cross 
an idol and the Christians idolators for paying reverence to it. 
The Christians of America recognize the cross as the emblem of 
Christianity ; and the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, to 
which denominations these missionaries belong, also recognize 
the cross and plant it on their chtirches. But there are Protest- 
ant Armenians in Turkey who would not believe it. 



Armenia's ordeal 53 

tion partaking of the communion, if any of the bread was 
left over, it could be thrown to the dogs as well as any 
other bread. 

Another said in the face of the Patriarch that the cross 
which the Armenians so much prized was of no more val- 
ue to him than any other timber piled in the lumber 
yards. 

Another one, when shown that those doctrines main- 
tained by the Church of Armenia, which he ignorantly 
attacked, were in harmony with the precepts of the Gos- 
pel, said : ' ' Oh, nonsense ! Never mind the Gospel ; that 
doctrine is not essential to salvation. I know what I am 
talking about, and whoever speaks against me the same 
speaks against the Holy Ghost," &c., &c., &c,* 

Thus the most ignorant became authorities in theology 
— in their own estimation — and continually discussed the- 
ology and attacked the Church in everything.! None of 

♦That Protestantism in Turkey has not much improved in these 
respects is demonstrated by the testimony of an Armenian Prot- 
estant pastor now living in Worcester, Mass., who a few years 
ago published a pamphlet in Armenian, in which the following 
paragraph occurs : 

"I feel very sorry and am ashamed as I remember the pulpits 
in the [Protestant] meeting houses in our country, especially in 
the villages. On them have appeared, and still are seen, ignorant 
men, inexperienced young fellows, and sometimes even boys. On 
them appear childish men, ignorant of [religious] doctrines and 
of truth. * * * on those pulpits such persons speak novel and 
self-created things — novel superstitions. I have personally seen 
on them men dancing like buffoons, crushing the pulpit with their 
feet and hands, roaring like mad beasts ; teaching what is incom- 
prehensible even to themselves, and what are out of one's 
thoughts and understanding ; and making even such utterances 
which are not short of swearing." — Rev. H. G. Barakian, L2£-/ti and 
Darkness^ pp. 86-87. 

tThe Armenians were no Christians according to these con- 



54 akmenia's ordeal 

the converts considered himself too ignorant to discuss 
religious doctrines. 

Apostle Paul says ' * The letter killeth but the spirit 
giveth life." But the American missionaries clung to the 
letter and discarded the spirit, and behold the result ! 

With such fanatic hostility the new converts daily at- 
tacked and abused the Church of Armenia all over the 
city ; in the cafes, in the market places, in the streets and 
in the houses. These profanations of the sanctities of 
the Church excited and exasperated the persecuted Ar- 
menians, and, had they been like other peoples, blood 
would have flowed freely in the streets of Constantinople ; 
but Christian meekness would not permit them to resort 
to violence. The Armenian clergy were alarmed lest some 
of their flock should lose their temper and a serious con- 
flict break out, for they knew that it would be followed 
with fierce measures on the part of the tyrannical govern- 
ment for the suppression of the disorder, and then the in- 
nocent and the guilty would suffer alike. In order to 
prevent any outbreak, the Armenian clergy continually 
admonished their flocks to keep aloof from the Protest- 
verts, and they were called by these fanatics with the nicknames 
Mashdotzagan (Mashdotzists), after Mesrob Mashdotz, an emi- 
nent theologian of the V. century ; Gregorian and Lousaworcha- 
gan (Illuminatorist) after Gregory the Illuminator. The nick- 
name Lousaworchagan was used so much that gradually it be- 
came the acknowledged appellation of those Armenians who 
remained faithful to the mother Church,and like the name Quaker, 
originally given in reproach and now the acknowledged name of 
the Friends, the name Lousaworchagan is no more a name of 
reproach. However, the Church of Armenia bears no such name 
as a Church, and her children are to be called nothing but Armen- 
ian Christians. The American missionaries have a special liking 
to calling them Gregorians, and still stj^le them as such. These 
names are but mementoes of Protestant fanaticism. 



I 

ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 55 

ants and have no intercourse with them, lest they be 
given oi^portunity to exasperate the Armenians of the 
National Church. 

While the Armenian clergy were making all efforts to 
prevent troubles, the American missionaries, on the other 
hand, would incite their converts to go and " preach the 
truth," even though it may end in serious trouble and 
their (the converts') banishment by the government.* 

The missionaries meanwhile would send reports to 
America stating that there was a great evangelical revi- 
val going on among the Armenians, but the bigotted Ar- 
menian clergy were persecuting the Protestant converts 
by not allowing their flocks to have any intercourse 
with them. 

The leading Armenians of the capital, bankers, archi- 
tects, etc., were deeply grieved and much displeased by 
the disturbances created by the missionaries, and were 
dissatisfied with Patriarch Stephen because of his mild 
character, for which reason he was called Stephen the 
Dove. They considered it essential for the preservation 
of public peace that the Patriarch should adopt some 
strong measures against the revilers of the National 

*The following is from the journal of the mission in Constanti- 
nople : 

" Mr. O., an Armenian from Constantinople [proper], called on 
Mr. Dwight. * * * A single man, he said, can do nothing. He 
may try to communicate enlightened sentiments to others, but he 
stands alone, and if he is the means of effecting any individual 
reform he is in continual danger of being sent to the gallies, or 
into banishment. Ans. [By Mr. Dwight]. 'Let him go into ban- 
ishment, and there, in imitation of the Apostles, let him preach 
the Gospel.' " — Missiotiary Hcraldior 1S37, p. 201. 

The missionaries knew how to say bad things in good words. 
They can curse and swear by praying. 



5G Armenia's ordeal 

Church. Accordingly, they invited Archbishop Hagupos, 
of Marsovan, to go to Constantinople, and subsequently 
he was appointed adviser to the Patriarch. 

Ligorius, the Patriarch of the Greeks, anathemized the 
faith of the missionaries, and Archbishop Hagopos also 
denounced the same from the pulpit of the Cathedral in 
Koum-Kapou. The American missionaries resorted to 
sophistry, and raised the cry of "Persecution!" They 
v^ent to Sir Stratford Canning (afterwards Sir Stratford 
de Redcliffe), the British Ambassador to the Porte, and 
complained of the Armenian and Greek Patriarchs with 
their unquestionable truthfulness ( !) The British Ambas 
sador, without investigating the matter, went forthwith 
to the Porte and protested against the two Patriarchs. 
The Turkish Government, with its arbitrary misrule, was 
too glad to inflict punishment on "Christian dogs," on 
the complaint of other " Christian dogs," and it took ad- 
vantage of this opportunity. Within four days the Porte 
severely censured the Armenian Patriarch and deposed 
the Patriarch of the Greeks. Thus, the Christian mis- 
sionaries not only raised brother against brother, but also 
took advantage of the domination of a tyrannical govern- 
ment and incited it to trample on the rights of its Chris- 
tian subjects by deposing their Patriarch.* 

*To Illustrate how the missionaries would take advantage of the 
rule of an unjust government, and would impel the government 
to add to Its oppression of the Christians while they were giving 
out that they suffered persecution at the hands of the Armenian 
nominal Christians, I translate an extract from the late Prof. 
Berberian's " History of the Armenians," treating of a case which 
occurred fourteen years after the Protestants were seperated 
from the nation and had been constituted as a seperate national 
community without any claims on the properties of the Armen • 
ian nation. Prof. Berberian has served as secretary of the Ar- 




ARMENIAN BISHOP DELIVERING SERMON DURING MASS. 



Armenia's ordeal 57 

Through the efforts of the missionaries, and by the as- 
sistance of the British Ambassador and the American 
representative, the Protestant converts of various nation- 

menian Patriarchate in Constantinople for about twenty-five 
years, and therefore he must be a good authority ; he writes : 

" About this time [iS6o] an Armenian Protestant, named Miri- 
Kelam Garabed, died, and the Protestant Armenians wanted to 
bury his body in the Armenian cemetery at Edirneh-Kapousou, 
[the property of the Armenian Church]. The Armenian people 
knew him as a blasphemer who in his lifetime daily reviled the 
Armenian Church and nation, calling them house of idols and idol- 
ators respectively, and who declared himself to be an apostle of 
Christ, claiming that he had seen Christ, and had been 
ordained by Him to preach the Gospel, in the man- 
ner that Paul was, and who made other hellish utterances. 
The Armenian people, being unable to tolerate this, arose in a 
great multitude and did not allow the burial in their cemetery, 
choosing to die for the honor of the nation rather than receive the 
blasphemer of the Virgin Mother of the Lord in their holy 
grounds. 

"And as the disturbance augmented the representatives of 
England and;|America intervened on behalf of the Protestants, 
and they sent their dragomans to the Armenian Patriarchate, 
who came and requested of the Patriarch, with bitter complaint, 
that he should permit the burial of the dead man in the Armenian 
cemetery. But Patriarch Sarkis could not grant this request on 
account of the public agitation. He foresaw that the strife would 
come to the highest pitch, and he resolved to face even death for 
the honor of the holy Church and of the nation. Then the repre- 
sentatives protested to the Sublime Porte. Riza Pacha, the Min- 
ister of War, and Mehmed Pacha, the Minister of Police, went to 
the cemetery with numerous troops and policemen. Patriarch 
Sarkis also went to the cemetery to defend the nation's rights, 
and by his wisdom and amiability he appeased the anger of the 
Minister of War, who was threatening to disperse the crowd of 
Armenians by opening fire upon them. * ♦ * Then seeing that 
because of one dead man thousands were prepared to lay down 
their lives In defense of their canons, the Minister of War confer- 
red with Mehmed Pacha, and they selected a corner without the 
border of the cemetery for the burial of the corpse." — Prof. Ave- 
dis Berberian, History of the Armenians, pp. 384-385. 



58 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

alities secured a charter from the Sultan, in 1846, consti- 
tuting the converts of the missionaries in Turkey as a 
new national community, independent of all other relig- 
ious bodies in Turkey, and to be recognized by the name 
Protestant Millet (Protestant Nation). 

The name Armenian was discarded by these converts. 
The Protestant Millet consisted of the Armenian, Jewish, 
Greek, Turkish, Persian, Syrian and all other sorts of 
converts of the missionaries.* These various foreign ra- 
ces, through this schism, naturally sundered all relations 
with their own respective races and nationalities, and 
were mixed up with each other through intermarriage. 
And this was the newly created Protestant nation; — a 
mixture of the alienated children of half a dozen widely 
different races. But in this mixture the Armenian ele- 
ment being the largest in proportion, the others were di- 
gested, and the Protestant Millet became nothing but a 
schismatic body of Armenians corrupted by foreign 
blood. 



*The missionaries were not encotiraged in their mission work 
among- the Mohammedans and Jews, and after making hardly a 
score of converts of them in about as many years, they gave tip 
that field and centered their labors on the Christians. Their ef- 
forts among the Greeks, also, were of little avail. Thej^ won sev- 
eral thousands of Armenians, but during the past 25 years that 
also has stopped. They will tell you that their efforts had im- 
mense influence on the Mohammedans morally, but don't 3'ou be- 
lieve them. 



Armenia's ordeal. 59 



CHAPTER IIL 

SOME RESULTS OP MISSIONARY WORK, 

Like a rock precipitated from the summit of a lofty 
peak, rolling and rolling down with great velocity, of 
which there is no telling where it may stop. Protestant- 
ism in Turkey could not stop anywhere. It kept on 
rolling down — to the great sorrow of the missionaries. 

The missionaries taught these people to rebel against 
their Church and traditions, in order to take them under 
their own rule; but rebellion having become their in- 
stinct, they could not meekly bear the missionary yoke, 
especially since they did not find it to be an easy one. 
The missionaries denounced sacerdotal rule, yet they at- 
tempted to rule over their converts like infallible popes. 
They would not recognize a Pope, but each of them Avas 
a pope in himself. 

There was continual friction between the native Prot- 
estant churches and the missionaries, and disputes and 
quarrels were of frequent occurrence. The missionaries 
demanded to have their own way with the churches be- 
cause they had the money, while the churches demanded 
regard for their own rights. 

I shall recount an incident of this character to show 
the Christian spirit of the missionaries and the noble 
work of evangelization they are carrying on in Turkey 
among the "nominal Christians," as they style the Ar- 
menians in their truthful ( ! ) reports. 

About thirty years ago the Protestant Church of Lan- 



60 Armenia's ordeal 

ga, at Constantinople, was the foremost of its kind in the 
Ottoman Empire. In 1868 the pastor of this Church took 
leave of absence for an indefinite period for the purpose 
of making a journey to the United States of America. 
The Church was to have a temporary preacher until the 
return of its pastor. The missionaries desired either 
Rev. Mugurditch Kiretchjian or Rev. Avedis Constan- 
tian to take the place, because these two were obedient 
to the will of the missionaries, and for that very reason 
they were unpopular among the Protestants. The mis- 
sionaries presented to the Church of Langa the names of 
three preachers from which the Church was to select one. 
Two of the candidates were the above-mentioned preach- 
ers, and the third was Rev. Stephen Utujian, a man whom 
the missionaries did not like and were quite confident 
that the Langa community also would not have him. His 
name was put on the list simply to mislead the church- 
members that the missionaries were noti ^o very anxious 
for the election of either of the other two. Besides pre- 
senting the names of these three candidates, the mission- 
aries particularly suggested to some leading members of 
the Church that if they should not approve of Kiretchjian, 
Constantian would be the best man for them to choose. 

But when a secret ballot was cast by the church-mem- 
bers, somehow or other it so happened that Utujian was 
elected, to the astonishment and embarrassment of the 
missionaries. The missionaries were excited upon this 
unexpected result, and declared that this election must 
be annulled and a second ballot should be taken, thereby 
intimating their disapproval of Utujian, After a long 
dispute the Church consented to ballot a second time. 
Again Utujian was their choice. This time the mission- 



Armenia's ordeal 61 

aries declared that since the Church would persist in 
electing Utujian, they would not pay his salary as 
preacher ( a large portion of the pastor's salary being paid 
by the missionaries because of the poverty of the church- 
members) . 

Desiring to bring about an amicable settlement of the 
trouble, Mr. S. M. Minasian, a Protestant merchant, of- 
fered to pay the preacher's salary out of his own purse. 
Mr. Minasian could not imagine that this would offend 
the good missionaries ; but, unfortunately, it did offend 
them. The missionaries were exasperated, and declared 
that the church building was bought by them and that 
therefore it was their own private property, and that the 
congregation had no right to use it. 

The congregation took this for an outburst of tempo- 
rary loss of temper, and could not think that these evan- 
gelists could be so mischievous as that. But on the follow- 
ing Sunday those who went first to the Church for the 
morning service were surprised to see some sort of seal 
on the door. This seemed to the church-members some- 
thing too ridiculous to be taken seriously. True it was 
that the building was bought by the missionaries, but it 
was with the money given to the American Board by the 
Christian people of America to be used for the Protest- 
ants in Turkey. They opened the door and went in for 
the morning service. Soon after the service was begun 
Mr. Herrick, one of the missionaries, marched into the 
Church at the head of a squad of Turkish police, and he 
directed the policemen to arrest those who had come to 
worship, charging them with breaking into his own 
house, although the Church was not Mr. Herrick's own 
house anymore than it was anybody else's. The church- 



62 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

members were seized and clapped in prison, and this 
ended that Sunday's morning service. The church-mem- 
bers were released afterwards, and they began to hold 
their Sunday meetings in a house, surrendering the church 
edifice to the missionaries. 

Let the reader imagine what effect this missionary per- 
secution must have had on the minds of the Armenian 
" nominal Christians." This event shocked not only 
Constantinople but also it was re-echoed in America, and 
the Church Union, the organ of Rev. Henry Ward Beech*, 
er, strongly condemned the missionaries, and published a 
series of strong articles on the subject. 

There were two liberal minded missionaries in Turkey 
who expressed their opinion that the native Protestant 
Churches should be allowed to freely exercise the right 
of electing their pastors, and that they should not be tyr- 
annized by the missionaries. These two liberal mission- 
aries were Dr. Henry J. Van Lennep and Dr. Cyrus Ham- 
lin, the founder of Roberts College, in Constantinople. 
These two were punished by the intolerant missionaries 
for encouraging the rebellion of the native Protestant 
Churches against the missionary authority — (of infallible 
papacy ?) 

The Roberts College, which was realized through many 
years of effort and suffering by Dr. Hamlin, was wrested 
from the hands of its founder, and Dr. Hamlin was ban- 
ished to America, there to repent for his mortal sin. 

Dr. H. J. Van Lennep ^lad the same fate ; he was ab- 
ruptly driven from Turkey, together with his family, and 
was so roughly handled that the shock paralyzed his eye- 



Armenia's ordeal 63 

sight for the rest of his life,* Dr. Van Lennep has been 
the only missionary to whom the Armenian Protestants 
have felt so much gratitude as to honor his memory by 
placing a tombstone on his grave in Great Barrington, 
Mass., which stands as a mark of appreciation for the 
manly stand taken by him against missionary despot- 
ism. 

The persecution and banishment of two colleagues was 
not sufficient for the missionaries to conquer and subju- 
gate their converts. The converts would resist; they 
would rebel, especially when the missionaries would at- 
tempt to dictate to them arbitrarily, and would treat 
them as though they were their religious vassals, 

A large number of the Protestant Armenians gradually 
became disgusted with the missionaries, finding 

Their piety a system of deceit — 
Scripture employed to sanctify the cheat. 

They repented for having frivolously forsaken their 
mother Church for another without sufficient inquiry and 
knowledge. But they had not the manliness to acknowl- 
edge that they were mistaken. Their self-love and fool- 
ish pride would not permit them to return to the mother 
Church, to acknowledge their error, and to hear the ' ' I- 
told-you-so " of their gladdened friends and relatives. 
Yet they could not endure their position and wanted to 

*"I have been driven from my chosen field of thirt}- years' labour 
for presuming to defend the religious liberties and rights of the 
sixty new-born Evangelical [Protestant] Churches of Western 
Asia, and for expressing views based upon a broader experience 
and more generous sentiments than have fallen to the lot of my 
persecutors." — Rev. H. J. Van Lennep, D. D., Little Knmvn Parts of 
Asia Minor. Vol. i., Preface, p, iv. 



64 ABMENIA'S ORDEAL 

have a change. The result of this was the introduction 
of various other Protestant denominations at the hands of 
rebellious Protestant pastors. The Protestant Millet was 
torn to half a dozen sects. The dissatisfied Protestants 
found, gratification in their desire for having a change, 
and with their restless habit began to jump from one de- 
nomination to another, and changed their faith as often 
as they pleased. 

This fluctuation worried the American missionaries, 
and they made every effort to prevail upon the various 
denominations in America to dismiss their native mis- 
sionaries, as they were confounding the " Lord's work." 
They endeavored to have the new missions closed up, 
that the American Board might have the religious monop- 
oly of Turkey. 

These events had a demoralizing influence on the Prot- 
estants, and the majority of them received the lamentable 
impression that religion was all humbug, and that it was 
to be used for worldly advantages. ' ' Free-thinking" and 
atheism, which were heretofore unknown among Armen- 
ians, gradually began to spread among the disappointed 
Protestants. Some openly denied the existence of God, 
while others did not renounce their faith because it was 
to their interest to feign religiousness. 

And as when ' ' one member suffers all the members 
suffer with it," the Armenian nation itself did not remain 
free from this contagion. A number of Protestants, flnd- 
ing that their faith was a failure, gave up religion alto- 
gether and plunged into atheism, but they were not sat- 
isfied with their own ruin and wanted to ruin the others 
also. As the irreligious would be looked on by the re- 
ligious with disdain, they were bent on destroying relig- 



Armenia's ordeal 65 

ion in order to escape the contempt of the religious. 

Atheism began to spread. Christianity in general, and 
the Armenian Church in particular, was ridiculed and 
sneered at, and the sanctities of the Church became the 
theme of vile comic papers. Atheistic literature was 
translated into Armenian and published, and he who was 
not an atheist was not an up-to-date man. 

Atheism was spread among Armenians particularly in 
the Turkish capital and in Smyrna. Some Armenians 
who would not believe in any religion at all began to ad- 
vocate the reformation of the Church of Armenia; they 
wanted some transformation, some change, some altera- 
tion and reduction on Protestant principles. If they ap- 
proved of Protestantism, why not join one of the various 
Protestant denominations and why bother with changing 
the Church of Armenia? But, no; they did not care for 
any form of religion. They just wanted to ruin the ex- 
isting orders — that was all. 

An Armenian novelist in Russo-Armenia, whose works 
found wide reading among the Armenians, especially 
since the Turkish government prohibited their circulation 
because of their somewhat seditious character, having 
been infected by the epidemic of the time, made it his 
business to calumniate in his novels the Armenian clergy 
and Church, perhaps imagining that by so doing he 
would become an Eugene Sue. He advocated church 
reform and all sorts of absurdities ; his idea of the true 
form of religion was a confusion of everything, and inclu- 
ded the transmigration of the soul. His novels tended 
to propagate atheism rather than anything else, and had 
a very ruinous effect on the minds of his readers. One of 
his thoughtless utterances was his calling attention to 



66 akmenia's ordeax, 

the Armenian monasteries as very good edifices to be util- 
ized for barracks in case of an Armenian revolution, and 
now, as a result, some of them have been transformed to 
barracks of the Kurdish Hamidieh cavalry. 

When this novelist died, the Avedcqjer, the Armenian 
organ of the American missionaries, published his obitu- 
ary in the highest words of praise, and lamented the loss 
of such a great man ; and the greatness of this man con- 
sisted in this, that he did much in ruining the faith of 
the Armenians. 

This man had an associate named Gregor Arclzrouni, 
who was the proprietor and editor of an Armenian news- 
paper, the Mschalc, published in Tifl.is, in the Caucasus. 
Being atheists themselves, they had formed a party for 
the reformation of the Church of Armenia, all the Prot- 
estants being in sympathy with them. They did this for 
the simple reason that a '' church-reform " movement 
among the Armenians would be the first step towards the 
annihilation of the Church of Armenia. 

Impudences of this nature reached their maximum, 
and a crisis was fast approaching — a crisis which was to 
determine whether the ancient Apostolic Church of Ar- 
menia, after passing through the ordeal of so many dark 
centuries, was to perish on the threshold of the twentieth 
century, or whether Divine Providence was to deliver her 
from the destructive plans of the wicked. . 



Armenia's ordeal 67 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EDUCATIONAL WORK. 

Before proceeding with the account of the activity of 
the Church reformists, I must pause to make an exami- 
nation of the educational work of the missionaries. 

Besides the religious work, the missionaries carry on 
also an educational work. This is a branch and an instru- 
ment of the former. Although for the past twenty- five 
years there have been almost no converts to Protestant- 
ism, this educational work is propagating the " truth," 
and hundreds of Armenian boys annually sent to the mis> 
sionary schools by simple-minded parents, come out from 
them altogether changed and different from what they 
were when in the home of their parents. It is true that 
they get a general education ; they learn reading, writing, 
arithmetic, geography, and this and that. But are these 
sufficient to refine and elevate these children ? 

The missionary educational institutions are on strictly 
religious principles ; they are meant to make Protestants 
out of the pupils. The work of Protestantization has 
two courses. In the first course they teach the pupils 
that the Church of Armenia is all corruption and all 
wrong ; in the second course they instruct the students 
in the strict observance of the sabbath, regular attend- 
ance to the wearisome prayer-meetings, and a few idle 
formalities to which the missionaries attach too much im- 
portance. The innocent children do ■ learn that their 
mother Church is all corruption, but they do' not see why 



68 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

those few idle formalities emphasized by their teachers 
should be observed at all, and when they grow into man- 
hood they do not believe in the Church of Armenia, 
neither would they become Protestants. They enter these 
schools with piety in their hearts, but they come out with 
contempt for religion. The missionaries feel satisfaction 
in seeing that Armenians are cooling toward their Church, 
and they hold this to be an evidence of enlightenment. 

There are missionary colleges in Marsovan, Aintab and 
Harpoot, and high schools in Bardizag and Bitlis. There 
is also the Roberts college in Constantinople, which is 
formally said to be an independent institution, but in 
fact it is under missionary control since it was wrested 
from Dr. Cyrus Hamlin's hands. • 

Now, what good have all these educational institutions 
done for the Armenians ? They have existed for so many 
years and millions of American money have been wasted 
on them — have they done any good for the Armenians ? 
The Armenians are known as a very intelligent people, 
who have earned fame everywhere they have gone. How 
is it that the missionary education has not raised anybody 
of particular note from among this people? The Hon. 
James Bryce, speaking of the Armenians, testifies for 
them the following : 

* ' They are a strong race, not only with vigorous nerves 
and sinews, physically active and energetic, but also of 
conspicuous brain power. Thus, they have held a very 
important place among the inhabitants of Western Asia 
ever since the sixth century. If you look into the annals 
of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire, you will find 
that most of the men who rose to eminence in its service 
as'generals or statesmen during the early middle ages 
were of Armenian stock. So was it after the establish- 



Armenia's ordeal 69 

ment of the Turkish dominion in Europe. Many of the 
ablest men in the Turkish service have been Armenian by 
birth or extraction. The same is true with regard to the 
Russian service. Among all those who dwell in Western 
Asia, they stand first, with a capacity for intellectual 
and moral progress, as well as with a natural tenacity of 
will and purpose, beyond that of all their neighbors not 
merely of Turks, Tartars, Kurds and Persians, but also of 
Russians."* 

How is it that out of such a race the missionaries have 
not produced from their educational institutions anybody 
of merit or distinction, who should have rendered any 
service to his nation? Where are the authors in poetry, 
history, and in the various other branches of literature, 
that such educational institutions should have produced 
were they not crippled by such teachings as would de- 
moralize the intellectual faculties? 

I challenge the missionaries to show a few graduates of 
their colleges for whom they can testify as scholars oi; 
any merit, that have rendered any service to Armenian 
literature, or men who have been of any use for their na- 
tion. Can they show, out of the thousands of graduates 
of their educational institutions, a single person of the 
standard of Archbishop Lusignan, Patriarch Izmirlian, or 
Catholicos Mugurditch I. (Khrimian), — those worthy 
sons of the Church of Armenia? 

How is it that during their sixty-five years of labor 
among the Armenians the missionaries have not raised a 
single Armenian whom they themselves have found 
worthy of being the bearer of the title of Doctor of Divin- 
ity? How is it that during all this time there has not 

*As quoted by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, in Introduction to 
Armeman Poems (Roberts Brothers, Boston. 3 



70 Armenia's ordeal 

been a single Protestant Armenian whom they should 
have deemed worthy of a seat in the Strawberry Conven- 
tions?* 

Let the missionaries point out the most eminent and 
worthy man in their estimation (a living man) that their 
educational institutions have reared, and let us see what 
he is like. 

Let us examine the ability of one of the most promi- 
nent missionaries engaged in educational work, and the-^e- 
by judge the fruit that such a plant could possibly bear. 

Dr. Crosby H. Wheeler, the founder of the Euphrates 
College in Harpoot, who has been president of that col- 
lege until recently, is a good type of the missionaries en- 
gaged in educating the Armenians. Thousands of boys 
and girls have received their education under his super- 
vision and direction. < 

When asked by Armenians why the Protestants do not 
practice the commandment of Jesus regarding washing 
each other's feet, which was given not only verbally, like 
the commandment for baptism, but also by practical ex- 
ample, Dr. Wheeler replied, "Well, I wash my wife's 
feet." I do not know how this sounds to Americans, but 
it is most indecent and profane language for Armenians, 
especially when used in connection with sacred affairs of 

*The missionaries in Turkey annually gather in Constantinople 
for the purpose of conferring on the means of promoting their 
work. This convention is held in May, when the celebrated 
strawberrjr of Arnaut-Keuy, a suburb of Constantinople, is put in 
the market, of which the missionaries are very fond. The mis- 
sionaries hold their session in strict secrecy, and it was whispered 
about that the meeting of the missionaries was all a sham, and 
only a pretext to come to Constantinople and enjoy the straw- 
berry of Arnaut-Keuy ; hence it derived its name of Strawberry 
Convention, now in common use in Constantinople. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 71 

religion. Only libertines would indulge in this sort of 
vile language. 

On an occasion when Dr. Wheeler happened to be in 
an Armenian Church, a lady approached him after the 
church services were over, and asked him it there was 
anything wrong in kissing the cross, which the priest 
held out for the people to kiss before leaving the Church, 
after the established custom, and whether Dr. "Wheeler 
would not kiss the cross ? The missionary replied, 

" Why should I kiss a cross ?" 

" Don't you know that the Saviour died upon the 
cross ?" asked the Armenian lady. 

" Well," said this novel evangelist, "if I must kiss ev- 
ery cross because the Saviour died on one, then I must 
kiss every ass because the Saviour rode on one." 

The priest, who was standing not far off, overheard 
this, and interposing, said : 

"Pardon me, lady, let me answer that foolish talk." 
And turning to Dr. Wheeler, added, "Jesus saved me 
by dying on the cross, but what did he do for me by rid- 
ing on an ass?"* 

The above two stories are recited with glory by Dr. 
Wheeler in one of his books, to show how he preached 
the "truth " to the Armenian " nominal Christians." 

Now, which of these two — the Armenian priest and 
the American missionary — which of these two should 
evangelize the other? Which is a better Christian? 

*"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our 
Lord Jesus Christ " (Gal. vi. 14.) "I have told you often and now 
tell you even weeping-, that they are the enemies of the cross of 
Christ : Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and 
whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil, iii, 
i8-iq.) 



72 Armenia's ordeal 

Which is a better man ? Which of the two is fit to be 
the shepherd of a people, and which one is unfit? Should 
such a man like Wheeler be entrusted with the educa- 
tion of the young while he speaks of holy things with 
such disrespectful language? And when he is trusted 
with such a vital task what kind of pupils can be ex- 
pected of him ? Could he possibly educate his pupils to 
beany better than himself ? 

Christianity has been the life of the Armenian nation ; 
when it is uprooted from the Armenian heart how shall 
the nation live? 

This corrupt educational work has demoralized the 
new generation. The spirit of nationality is dead; all 
noble feelings are gone, and those sons of the nation who 
should have devoted their lives for the well-being of their 
nation, now look upon everything as vanity excepting 
their own selves. When a man has no religion ; when a 
man has no fear of the Deity ; when a man does not be- 
lieve in a future life, wherein he may expect to receive 
the compensation of his noble deeds in this world, what 
on earth can impel a man to lay down his life for his 
brother, or even to give precedence to the well-being of 
his brethren over that of his own ? 

What have the missionaries made of the Armenians that 
have fallen under their influence? Have they elevated 
them or debased them? Not long ago Dr. Farnsworth, 
one of the oldest missionaries to \'ae Armenians, declared 
to a gathering of American ladies in Brooklyn that be- 
fore the entry of the missionaries in Turkey the Armen- 
ians possessed such a corrupt form of religion that their 
Moslem neighbors detested it, and said, "Is this Chris- 
tianity? If so, we want none of it." But since then the 







X 

o 



Cd 






Cd 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 73 

missionaries have brought their converts to such a state 
that the Moslems would not say that anymore.* Is this 
elevation or degradation? Is it to the credit of any 
Christian to meet the approval of the Moslems regarding 
his religion ? Are the Moslems the true judges of the 
best form of Christianity ? Should we seek their appro- 
bation for our faith? The children of the Church of Ar- 
menia have always sought to meet the approval of God 
alone, and not of the Turks. When God approves, of 
course the harem-keeping Turk should disapprove ; and 
when the harem-keeping Turk approves God would cer- 
tainly disapprove. I feel very sorry for Dr. Farnsworth 
that he considers the disapproval of our religion by the 
Moslems something to our discredit. 

I fear that the missionaries in Turkey, instead of influ- 
encing the Moslems with Christianity, are themselves 
falling under the influence of Mohammedanism, and are 
becoming admirers of Mohammed. It was with no little 
regret that some time ago I read the following passage 
from the pen of a former missionary of the American 
Board : 

' ' I have a profound respect for the prophet of Arabia, 
who might have been another apostle Paul," &c.t 

It is something to be regretted that while the mission- 
aries have no respect at all for the Cross, and would 
compare it with an ass, they have profound respect for 
Mohammed ; and yet they claim to be the propagators of 

* See Dr. Farnsworth's speech to the Brooklyn Auxiliaries of 
the Women's Board of Foreign Missions on February 26th, 1896, 
reported in the New York Times of the following" day. 

tRev. Frederick D. Greene, The Armenian Crisis in Turkey, p. no. 



74 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

the Christian faith. Is it any wonder that such mission- 
aries should make their converts also admirers of Moham- 
med and Mohammedanism ? 

Rev. Eghia Boyajian, M. D., of Mcomedia, vras a grad- 
uate ol the Bebek Seminary (now Roberts College). He 
labored with the missionaries as Protestant preacher for 
several years, and afterwards he embraced the Islam 
faith. 

Dr. Nevdon M. Boyajian, the son of Mr. Hagop Boy- 
ajian, the civil head of the Protestant Millet, who is the 
same to the Protestants of Turkey as the Armenian Pa- 
triarch of Constantinople is to the Armenians, five years 
ago published an article in the Cosmopolitan Magazine 
(for October, 1891), on the "Modern Women in Tur- 
key," in which he highly praised the Sultan and the 
Turkish women, and declared himself to be a Mohamme- 
dan, assuming the name Osman Bey, as it is customary 
when a Christian embraces Islamism for him to assume a 
Moslem name. That there may be no mistaking who this 
new Osman Bey was, a portrait of Dr. Boyajian was given 
with the article. It was shocking to the Armenian peo- 
ple to hear that the son of the civil head of the Protest- 
ant Millet should have acknowledged the faith of the 
Prophet of Arabia. Osman Bey, when a Christian, had 
held the post of President of the Armenian Branch of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of New York. He 
was a graduate of the Roberts College, and I can say that 
he was the most highly educated Armenian Protestant 
that the missionary institutions have ever produced. — If 
I am mistaken, let the missionaries kindly correct my 
error. 

Is this what the' Armenians are to come to under mis- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 75 

sionary education ? Armenians have always looked to 
the Mohammedans with shunning, and nothing was look- 
ed on with so much horror as the apostasy of an Armen- 
ian to become a Moslem. But now, thanks to the mis- 
sionaries, the times are changed and the people are more 
"enlightened." 

This educational work of the missionaries has arrested 
the progress of the Armenians in the same line. It is 
true that the Armenians of the National Church have nu- 
merous schools of their own, but in almost all of them 
the effect of missionary influence is felt. The Protestant 
Armenians have not kept themselves aloof from the nation 
as the Roman Catholic Armenians have done. They min- 
gle with the Armenians of the National Church, and 
communicate to them their own ideas. They claim to be 
as patriotic as the rest of the Armenians, and as solici- 
tous for the progress of the nation. They often co-oper- 
ate with the Armenians in their educational work ; they 
join with the educational societies of the Armenians, and 
they get Protestants, or graduates of Protestant schools 
to teach in the schools of the Armenians, saying that 
" 'Wq are all xVrmenians — religious differences should not 
be a barrier amongst us." 

The Armenians of the National Church have been alto- 
gether too tolerant in this respect, and behold, the ruin- 
ous Protestant influence is felt in almost all the schools. 
The new generation is demoralized in these schools by 
corrupt teachings regarding the Church. There are no 
regular lessons given about it, but often a contemptuous 
smile from the teacher on matters of the Church would 
have a more ruinous effect on a whole class than wordy 
homilies. In former times the Armenian boys in the Na- 



76 Armenia's ordeal. 

tional schools learned not only how to read and write, 
and this and that, but also how to be good Christians. 
But now they learn that Church and religion are only for 
the old women, and that it is not decent for a learned 
young fellow to go to Church or observe religious pre- 
cepts like other superstitious people. 

Alas ! for the Nation. It has very little to expect from 
the rising generation ; and when the Nation's leading 
ispirits — the Armenians of the old school — shall disap- 
pear, I know not how the vacancy can be filled. 

As a direct result of this corruption, modern Armenian 
literature is in a miserable condition. Forty years ago 
we were better off in that respect. The publications were 
not so numerous then, but they were not rubbish, as is 
contemporary literature, with very few exceptions. 

The colleges of the missionaries, and those of the Na- 
tion in recent years, have produced no men of merit. 
The graduates of these schools have been of no benefit to 
the Nation. As a rule, they are full of self-conceit, pride, 
vanity and ostentation — wind-bags, in short. They have 
lost seriousness, earnestness and modesty, which are the 
characteristic traits of an Armenian left in his natural 
state. They have been in many cases worse than useless, 
and dangerous for the Nation in its most grave trials in 
recent years. I will have occasion, further on, to speak 
on the attitude of this class of men towards the Nation. 

About the time when the American missionaries began 
their labors among the Armenians, Mr. Pease, one of the 
missionaries of the Board, wrote from Constantinople the 
following : 

' ' I have never seen an Armenian engaged in the busi- 



Armenia's ordeal 77 

ness of selling spirits, nor in a grog-shop, nor drunk, or 
at all under the influence of spirits."* 

And Mr. D wight, after having traveled in Asia Minor 
and Armenia, wrote — 

" I am not aware that hitherto any of the Armenians 
have become free-thinkers, nor do I imagine that, as a 
nation, they are particularly exposed to this evil."t 

Blessed times ! 

Can the missionaries say these things now ? 

O ! Missionaries ! Give us back those blessed old 
times ; give us back our old Christianity which you took 
away from us ; give us back our former purity ; give us- 
back our lost brethren whom you have led into the mire 
of corruption ! You have ruined our nation, you have: 
defiled our homes, you have debased our brethren moral- 
ly and spiritually. " Woe unto you scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make 
one proselyte ; and when he is made ye make him two- 
fold the child of hell than yourselves" (Matt, xxiii. 15). 
You have been speeding the day of the coming of the 
Lord by annihilating the faith of Christians to fulfil the 
prophesy of our Saviour : ^ ' When the Son of Man com- 
eth shall he find faith on the earth ?" (Luke xviii. 8.) 

*Missi(mary Herald for 1S37, p. 412. ^Miss. Herald for 1836, p. 49. 



78 Armenia's ordeal 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PLOTS OF THE ' ' CHURCH-REFORMISTS. " 

At the end of the chapter previous to the preceding 
one, the formation of an atheistic party for the purpose 
of demolishing the National Church was alluded to. Now 
I come to give an account of the deeds of this party, 
which we can safely term as the result of the tares sowed 
by the missionaries. 

When on April 28, 1891, Catholicos Magar I,, the Su- 
preme Patriarch of the Church of Armenia, died, the 
Armenian horizon was thickly enveloped with dark 
clouds. By the death of His Holiness the nation was 
left in darkness as to the future. It was the beginning 
of a great struggle for the maintenance of the National 
Church. A crisis was at hand, and the fate of the Church 
was to be decided. There was to be a battle between 
light and darkness — a battle between the Kingdom of 
Christ and that of Satan. It was to be decided whether 
the Apostolic Church of Armenia was to be subjected to 
a revolution at the hands of a pack of impious scoundrels 
or whether she was going to be upheld in her primitive 
spirit of Christianity. 

This vital question was to be determined by the char- 
acter of the new Pontiff to be elected to succeed the de- 
ceased Catholicos. A remarkable vision seen by the 
late Catholicos on the night previous to his decease, 
pointed out that the Kingdom of Christ was to come out 
triumphant in the coming struggle, and that a new era 



Armenia's oedeal 79 

of regeneration was at hand.* But the truthfulness of 
a vision cannot be relied on until it is fulfilled ; there- 
fore, while it inspired some encouragement, the anxiety 
for the future must have been, indeed, very great to those 
who could fully realize the gravity of the situation. 

There was only one prominent candidate for the suc- 
cession on the Pontificial throne, and the eyes of the na- 
tion were hopefully set upon him. He was Archbishop 
Khrimian, whom the whole nation idolized and called 
with the endearing name Hairig (papa.) 

Khrimian was a true son of the Church of Armenia. 
He was a conservative in matters of the Church, and a 
man of great intelligence. He possessed all the qualifi- 

*The following is the account of the vision seen by Catholicos 
Magar, which he related to those around his death-bed : 

" My sons, I have disturbed you, but I have had a dream : Mount 
Aiarat was flooded with light. The Apostles of the Church of 
Armenia, the Illuminator, with his sons and grandsons, Sahag, 
Otsnetsi, the Nersesses, all the laboring Patriarchs, Abgar, Tiri- 
dates, Vramshabouh, the Sumpads, Gagig, Leon, the Vartanians, 
in short, all the martyrs of the Armenian Church and of the Na- 
tional autonomy, were gathered and were rejoicing. I saw vipers 
devoid of their venom, and dead. A luminous form spoke out to 
all : ' Behold, I have annihilated from among you all the poisons 
of corruption ; this land shall always shine if its sons should not 
create reptiles anew. I bestow this grace unto you for the sake 
of your blood. Inspire your spirit into them that they may know 
the value of my visitation. I have enriched them four times, but 
each time they squandered their riches with their own hands.' 
The luminous form called an old man and said unto him, ' Thou 
lead them by thy piety. [The Form] ordered a j-oung man to 
assume leadership, and by his patriotism chastise the surround- 
ing enemies. [The Form] ordered a youth to exercise them in 
modesty. > {The Form] commanded a brave man, dressed in red, 
not to be so lenient, and not to trust in every pledge, but to har- 
poon the vai;tlglorious plotters ; and, after all these, [the Form] 
blessed an angelic looking lad, the like of whose gracefulness I 



80 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

cations for the exalted office of the religious head of the 
Nation. He had held high posts, discharging his duties 
with wisdom; he had filled the Patriarchal chair ol Con- 
stantinople for four years (1869-1873), and had won the 
love of the whole nation. He could have held the post 
of Patriarch of Constantinople for life had he not been 
driven to resign by the intrigues of the Turkish Govern- 
ment, which disliked him very much because of his zeal 
for the well-being of his flock. Unfortunately Khrimian 
was, at this time, an exile and a prisoner confined in the 
Armenian monastery in Jerusalem by order of the Sultan. 

The atheistic church-reformists, whose leader was 
Gregor Ardzrouni, also had their own candidate, whom 
they desired to see on the Pontificial throne. He was 
Bishop Arisdagess Setrakian. 

Setrakian was a man of no particular distinction, very 
little known by the nation, devoid of the qualifications 
necessary for the sacred office to which he aspired. He 
was an ambitious man, and anxious to become Catholi- 
cos — not to serve the nation, but to receive the homage 

have not known any, and [the Form] ordered all to obey him. 
They were led towards this temple [the Cathedral of Etchmiad- 
zin] ; I also went with them ; I also desired to bless that young 
man, boat the Voice forbade me, saying, ' There is time yet. Saul 
must die that the David which I have annointed may be publicly 
annointed here in this holy place.' I worshipped that luminous 
Form and awoke. It seems that this sig-nifies a visitation of our 
Lord. Be faithful to the God of our forefathers ; give good exam- 
ple to the people and encourage them not to despair, but to labor 
with patience, each one pursuing his course in his own calling, in 
the brave and datmtless religiousness and patriotism of the fore- 
fathers." — J7ie Last Days of Magar I.^ CatJiolicos of ali ihi Armenians^ 
by his biographer, reported in X'iiSi Armenia^ of. Marseilles (France), 
July 8, 1891. 




CATHOLICOS MAGAR I. 



Armenia's ordeal 81 

of the nation and to gratify his vanity. He was ready tO' 
sacrifice anything for the sake of capturing the throne. 
Setrakian was a member of the Synod in Etchmiadzin, 
the seat of the Catholicos, where he had much influence, 
especially after the decease of Catholicos Magar. Setrak- 
ian entered into secret negotiations with the Russian Gov- 
ernment to secure its assistance in his election, in return 
promising that in the event of his election he would place 
the Church of Armenia in close relation with the Russian 
Church. Thus, the Russian Government became as much 
interested in Setrakian's election as Setrakian himself 
was. Setrakian was inclined to do all the mischief in his 
powder for the promotion of his ambition, and the Russian 
Government was ready to help him. 

Ardzrouni was particularly anxious for Setrakian's elec- 
tion because Setrakian promised that, when elected, he 
would carry out such reforms in the Church as his sup- 
porters desired. 

The Church of Armenia, according to the words of 
Jesus, maintains that " Whosoever shall marry her that 
is divorced committeth adultery" (Matt. v. 32). Now, 
Ardzrouni desired to marry a woman who had deserted 
her husband and was unlawfully living with him (Ard- 
zrouni) , which is something of extremely unusual occur- 
rence among Armenians, and considered shockingly im- 
moral. Ardzrouni was not satisfied with setting 
such a shameful example before the Armenian people and 
desired that the Church should sanction his crime by 
marrying them. In order to evade the condemnation of 
his people, Ardzrouni took Setrakian's promise that, 
when elected Catholicos, he would, in return for Ard- 
zrouni's support, reform the marriage code, and make it 



83 Armenia's ordeal 

lawful for people to secure divorce and marry others. In 
other words, Ardzrouni sought to evade condemnation 
for his crime by making the crime general, 

Setrakian gave such promises freely to his would-be 
supporters, and it seems that he was so ignorant of the 
constitution of the Church that he imagined the Church 
was the plaything of the Catholicos, who could do with 
it as he might please. 

The election of the new Pontiff was set down for May 
16, 1892, to take place in Etchmiadzin. According to 
the regulations an electoral congress, consisting of ec- 
clesiastics and laymen, was to assemble, one ecclesiastic 
and one lay delegate being sent from each diocese all over 
the world. 

The seat of the Catholicos being under the flag of the 
Russian government, the election of a Catholicos by the 
Armenian delegates is hampered by Russian intermed- 
dling. The Holy Czar uses his worldly power to violate 
the inviolable rights of the Church of Christ, There is 
a certain law set by the Russian government regulating 
the election of an Armenian Catholicos by the Armenians 
themselves, and the Armenian delegates must observe 
that law,* In case the delegates should defy that law 

*"The relations of the Armenian Church to the Russian Govern- 
ment are regulated in a long document which received the signa- 
ture of Emperor Nicholas on March 23, 1836, and which, while 
reciting the internal constitution of the Church and the rules 
which govern the conduct of its own affairs, defines at the same 
time its privileges and its duties in connection with the Russian 
State. * * * The spiritual supremecy of the Catholikos of 
Etchmiadzin is recognised ; but Russia emphasises and develops 
the constitutional position of the Synod in the government of the 
Church, and then very wisely [for Russian despotism] frames reg- 
ulations which aim at making the Synod subservient to herself. 



Armenia's ordeal 83 

the penalty is hard labor in the mines of Siberia. This 
law robs the Armenians of the right of electing their Ca- 
tholicos — a right which has been exercised down to the 

This Synod consists of four archbishops or bishops and four ar- 
chimandrites, all residing at Etchmiadzin ; the Catholikos, if pres- 
ent at the sitting, presides. The Emperor fills up any vacancy in 
the body, two names being submitted to him by the Catholikos 
from which to make his choice. * * * The Synod must con- 
duct its affairs according to the Russian laws which govern col- 
leges, and it is under the supervision of the Minister of the Inter- 
ior. The Russian Government also appoints a Promreur or Con- 
troller who speaks both Armenian and Russian, and whose busi- 
ness it is to reside at Etchmiadzin and to supervise all the decrees 
of the Synod and pronounce upon their legality and their conso- 
nence with the powers which that body holds. These decrees are 
headed, 'By the order of the Emperor of Russia,' the Emperor be- 
ing the tutelar head of the Synod [by virtue of his tyranny]. The 
members of the Chancellery, who conduct the clerical work of the 
Synod, must be chosen with the approval of the Russian Control- 
ler, and at present they work under him. Nor is the Catholikos 
in a position of complete freedom even when he acts with his 
Synod. He cannot punish a member of Synod or even a diocesan 
bishop without notifying his intention to the Emperor and receiv- 
ing his consent. If he happens to have any matter pending with 
any foreign state he must communicate to the Emperor through 
the governor of the province of Erivan. If he wishes to leave 
Etchmiadzin for more than four months he must obtain the per- 
mission of the Emperor through the Minister of the Interior ; nor 
can he sanction the absence of a bishop abroad for more than the 
same period without having previously consulted the Imperial 
will. Every bishop of a diocese is appointed by the Emperor, to 
whom the Catholikos presents the names of candidates. But per- 
haps the most serious, because the most insidious, weapon against 
the independence of the Armenian Church, is the provision which 
enacts that a year shall elapse between the death of a Catholikos 
and the election of his successor. * * as a consequence a long 
interregnum ensues during which it is possible for the Government 
to play off one party against another, and to obtain those conces- 
sions which might be resisted during the occupancy of the chair." 
— H. F. B. Lynch, " The Armenian Question," in the Contemporary 



84 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

present century until Etchmiadzin fell under tlie Russian 
flag. This outrageous law requires that the Armenian 
electoral congress shall nominate two candidates and sub- 

Review, July, 1894. 

" The Church of Armenia, which withstood the persecutions of 
Sassanian kings, the blandishments of Byzantine emperors, the 
fiery onslaught of fanatic Mussulmans, and the more dangerous 
intrigues of its own schismatic members, is now gradually suc- 
cumbing to a judicious combination of all forms of persecution 
and cajolery employed by Russia. From the days of St. Gregory, 
the scion of a royal house and first Patriarch of Armenia, the 
Church has been governed as an absolute monarchy by his suc- 
cessors, called ' Catholicos,' until a comparatively recent period, 
when the ' natural protector of Oriental Christians ' forcibly intro- 
duced government by a Synod — the right of veto being invested 
in the Catholicos— as the thin edge of the wedge, which has been 
hammered and driven in considerably since then. The next im- 
portant move was made a few years ago, on the death of the late 
Catholicos, Kevork, who hated the Russian Government with the 
thoroughness and cordiality of which only a Christian ecclesiastic 
is capable. Theretofore it was customary for the delegates of- the 
Turkish Armenians, who possessed a voice in the election of a Ca- 
tholicos, to select, for economy's sake, one or two of their number, 
to whom they delegated their voting powers. These would then 
set out for Etchmiadzin, in Russia, where the election takes place. 
On the death of Kevork, however, the Government suddenly re- 
fused to sanction the practice of voting by proxy, and the electors 
were informed that unless they undertook, one and all, the costly 
journey to Russia, they must forfeit their votes. Against this the 
whole Armenian Church protested, and the Government straight- 
way threatened the existence of their schools. The privilege— 
which in Turkey and China would be the indefeasible right— of 
having parochial schools attached to Armenian parish churches 
was suddenly made conditional upon the priests and inspectors 
accepting the new additions made to their ancient ecclesiastical 
constitution.^ They replied that according to the canons of their 
Church no modifications could be lawfully introduced or accepted 
unless first sanctioned by the Catholicos, and as there was no Ca- 
tholicos they felt unable to take the matter into consideration. On 
this, the police entered the schools, drove out the weeping chil- 



Armenia's ordeal 85 

mit their names to the Czar, for him to choose and elect 
one, whereby the Czar's choice becomes the Catholicos- 
elect. 

dren, and closed the premises. Still the Synod stood firm. Then 
Prince Dondukoflf-Korsakoff pointed out to the members of that 
body that according to Article 329 of the Penal Code, the penalty 
for their contumacy was hard labour in the mines of Siberia, inas- 
much as the objectionable clauses had been promulgated in a 
Ukase of the Most High — z. ^., the Tsar. [The Czar goes up so 
high that no room is left for God.] The Synod was deaf to these 
threats. The Emperor, directly appealed to by his representa- 
tive, telegraphed reiterating his commands, but the Synod re- 
peated its non possumus. 

The elections at last took place, two candidates were chosen ac- 
cording to custom, the right being vested in the Russian Govern- 
ment, as the natural protector of all Oriental Christians, to ap- 
prove either of them. It had never before exercised that right 
to prefer the favorite candidate of the Synod to an unpopular one 
pvit forward merely in obedience to force majeure. On this occa- 
sion, determined to avail itself of this right of selection, the Gov- 
ernment took steps to have one of the candidates a Russophile. 
The eclesiastic electors, over whose heads the penalties decreed 
by Art. 329 were hanging, were informed that their crime would 
be left unpunished if they voted for Archbishop Magar. Hoping 
or believing that the candidate of the majority would be approved 
by the Russian authorities, the ecclesiastical electors purchased 
pardon on these seemingly easy terms. They, and they only, to 
the number of fourteen, voted for Magar, while both they and the 
lay electors chose Archbishop Muradian, who was thus unani 
mously elected with thirty-one votes. The Government at once 
selected the unpopular Magar and materially contributed to orig- 
inate a schism in the Church of a people, the majority of whom 
live in Turke}'. Several bishops and priests refused at first to 
recognize the new Catholicos, others struck his name out of the 
prayers during divine service, and even now many venerable ec- 
clesiastics are only restrained from protesting and transferring 
their allegiance to another by considerations of prudence and pa- 
triotism. Impotence to resist only intensifies the feeling of hatred 
with which most Armenians regard the Russian Government for 
its systematic endeavours to sweep away the National Church, 



86 Armenia's ordeal 

Khrimian's popularity was so overwhelming that any 
one opposing him would be recognized by the nation as 
a traitor. Khrimian was recognized as the standard of 
patriotism, and whoever sought the best interests of the 
nation could not but favor his election. The only fear 
entertained and the apprehension felt by the Armenians 
was that the Czar might approve ot the other name that 
needs must be presented with that of Khrimian. 

Setrakian had no fair chance for election. The mo- 
ment it should have been discovered that he was aspiring 
for the exalted oifice he would invite the hatred of the 
Armenian nation. His chance of being elected was only 
through craft, guile and deceit, and he began to plot 
against Khrimian soon after the decease of Magar I. 

The civil code regulating the election of a new Cathol- 
icos requires that the election should not be held until 

this last repository of the traditions, hopes and aspirations of a 
brave people. That the closing of the schools was not merely a 
transient form of punishment for disobedience, but one of the 
means deliberately employed to crush out the national spirit, is ev- 
ident from the galling conditions attached to their re-opening 
after the Government had scored a success in the election of the 
present Catholicos. The schools were declared to have perma- 
nently forfeited several of their 'privileges,' their programme 
was considerably narrowed, they were forbidden to have more 
than two classes, so that the utmost they can now do is to teach a 
child to read a little, and in the girl's school not even so much, as 
they can possess but one solitary class," — E. B. Lanin, " Armenia 
and the Armenian People," Fortnightly Review^ August, 1890. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Catholicos Magar owed his elec- 
tion to the Czar, he was so much disgusted with Russian intrigues 
that he became a- bitter Russophobist, and his death was hastened 
by excitement in preparing a memorial which he signed two days 
before his death, and sent to the Czar, protesting against his re- 
newed oppressive measures. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 87 

one year after the d^^ath of a Pontiff. This gave Setrak- 
ian ample time to conspire. 

Gregor Ardzrouni was Setrakian's secret manager. His 
plan to carry out Setrakian's election was to get his can- 
didate's name on the ticket as the second choice of the 
nation, and to have it presented to the Czar together with 
Khrimian's name. That would finish the business, for 
the Czar's choice would surely be Setrakian. 

In order to operate freely this evil design, Setrakian 
found it necessary to have two of the members of the 
Synod removed. These two were the Bishops Souki^.s 
Barziantz and Nerses Khudaverdiantz. The Russian 
government was ready to give all assistance to Setrakian. 
Shortly after the decease of Catholicos Magar the great 
monastery of Etchmiadzin was unexpectedly visited by 
the Russian secret police, the two above-mentioned Bish- 
ops were seized and thrown into a closed van, and car- 
ried off to parts unknown under the orders of supreme 
authority. The rumor was soon spread Ihat the two 
Bishops were banished to Siberia, and that the one had 
died on the way.* Armenians were helplsss to do any- 
thing, and they could but hate the Russian government 
all the more. It was not known then that this was a 
part in the programme of the Setrakian- Ardzrouni con- 
spiracy, even the existence of such a conspiracy being 
unknown at the time. By the removal of these two Bish- 
ops the monastery of Etchmiadzin was left under the 
sway of Setrakian, who now had every facility to plot 
and conspire. 

Ardzrouni could not openly advocate the nomination of 

*The two Bishops were held in detention until after the new 
Catholicos was elected arid enthroned, when they were released. 



88 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Setrakian to be the nation's first choice, for that would 
make him a dead man morally ; therefore he resorted to hy- 
pocrisy. He advocated Khrimian as the only man to be 
the nation's first choice and the future Catholicos, and 
he pretended to be the most ardent and fiery advocate for 
Khrimian. By this hypocrisy he succeeded in becoming 
the leader and manager of the Khrimian boom in Russian 
Armenia. The vote of the Russo- Armenian delegation 
was under his control. He pleaded that the ticket should 
be prepared with Khrimian as the first choice and Se- 
trakian as the second choice. He argued that the Rus- 
sian government, knowing well what a strong man 
Khrimian was, would bitterly oppose him, and the Czar 
would surely approve of any other person but Khrimian, 
whoever the second party might be. Therefore, he ar- 
gued, the only hope of the nation in realizing Khrimian's 
election would be in fooling the Czar by placing on the 
ticket with Khrimian one who would decline to accept 
the high office, when the Czar should approve his name, 
whereby the Czar would be compelled to recognize 
Khrimian as the rightful Catholicos. He advocated Se- 
trakian as the only trusty man on whom they could rely 
for giving him the second place on the ticket. He assured 
them that Setrakian would rather die than accept the 
throne in case the Czar's approval should fall upon him- 
self, and thus the Czar's choice would inevitably settle 
upon Khrimian, the only choice of the Armenians, whom 
the nation was determined to have. 

'But Ardzrouni's secret design was not to fool the Czar 
but to fool the Armenian nation ; to place Setrakian on 
the throne by deceit, and then laugh upon the electoral 
congress and the nation. 




CATHOLICOS MUGURDITCH I. (Hairig.) 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 89 

But when the delegation came from Armenia proper 
and Turkey, there were such men among the delegates 
whose sight could penetrate into the hearts of Ardzrouni 
and Setrakian, and could see their duplicity and malice. 

The 16th of May, 1892, arrived. The electoral congress 
was assembled. Thousands of Armenians had flocked 
thither from the neighboring towns. Peasants and farm- 
ers had forsaken their toil in the fields, and had tramped 
several miles to be at hand to hear first of Khrimian's 
nomination as the nation's first choice. The electoral 
congress had locked itself in the Cathedral. The lay del- 
egates were solemnly sworn in the name of the Almighty 
to remain faithful to the nation in the discharge of their 
duty — an oath which only those could feel themselves 
bound to keep who did believe in the Almighty. 

\. vast multitude of Armenians surged around the walls 
of the sacred edifice, and ail awaited in great anxiety to 
hear of the result of the balloting. It was a touching 
spectacle. Men and women, the young and the old, wept 
like children as their voices grew hoarse by shouting 
"Papa ! Papa ! Papa ! Long live Papa !" (Hairig ! 
Hairig ! Hairig ! Gettzeh Hairig ! ) — as the whole nation 
was wont to call the beloved Archbishop Khrimian by 
that affectionate title. 

Ardzrouni and Setrakian met with utter defeat in their 
secret design. Archbishop Khrimian, of Van, was unan- 
imously nominated as the nation's first choice, receiving 
the whole vote of the 72 electors ; but the second choice 
was Bishop Izmirlian, of Constantinople, who was nomi- 
'^ated with 52 votes. 

At high noon the signal was given by the peal of the 
bell of the Cathedral, informing the surging crowd that 



90 Armenia's ordeal 

** Papa " was the first choice of the electoral congress. 
The great multitude went wild with joy. The cause oi 
the Church was won. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE. 

The result of this election was very displeasing to the 
Russian Government. Khrimian was a strong and indus- 
trious man in spite of his old age, and his inauguration 
meant the raising of Etchmiadzin to a powerful religious 
institution. This was displeasing to the Russian Govern- 
ment, which has been doing all in its power to ruin Etch- 
miadzin, to debase its high significance, to fetter the Ca- 
tholicos, and gradually to entomb the Armenians in the 
Russian Church. But Izmirlian, the second choice of the 
nation, in addition to being an intelligent, strong and 
active man like Khrimian, was younger by about a score 
of years, combative and fearless by nature, and openly in 
opposition to Russian civil interference with the matters 
of the Church of Armenia — a man who could make things 
unpleasant for the ' ' Holy " Czar and his ungodly policy 
against the Apostolic Church of Armenia. 

The Czar could not find his way out of this dilemma 
except by approving of Khrimian, But he was reluctant 
to do this. 

After the electoral congress adjourned and the delegates 
had gone home, Setrakian and Ardzrouni were active in 
making every effort to annul this election, and to make a 
new election necessary, hoping that in that event they 



Armenia's ordeal 91 

might find success in their base design. This was in har- 
mony with the wishes of the Russian Govern- 
ment, and the Czar gave these plotters ample 
time by reserving his decision for about six months. 
But finally, when there seemed to be no hope 
for the annulment of the election, the Czar ren- 
dered his decision approving of Archbishop Mugurditch 
Khrimian, the prisoner of Jerusalem, and the first choice 
of the Armenian nation. 

By his election to the Pontificate Archbishop Khrimian 
became a Russian subject, but the Turkish Government 
was reluctant to release its distinguished prisoner, and 
the Russian Government was not anxious to secure his 
release. Thus, for months the matter remained in sus- 
pense, and the nation in great anxiety. 

At this time Gregor Ardzrouni died of heart disease, 
soon to be followed by his paramour, an immoral woman 
because of whom Ardzrouni would imperil the integ- 
rity of the Church and the fate of the nation, and have 
opened the way to great internal disorders and schisms, 
and that in such a grave epoch in the history of the na- 
tion, when a political crisis Avas fast approaching in Tur- 
key and Armenia, and the nation was to be overtaken by 
tremendous calamities which were being concocted at 
that time by Sultan Hamid, and of w'hich the Armenians 
were not wholly unaware. 

Ardzrouni's death naturally crippled the Setrakian con~ 
spiracy, which ended in complete failure. Finally Arch- 
bishop Khrimian was released, although with no little 
amount of difficulty, and was enthroned in Etchmiadzin 
8th October, 1893, -.s Catholicos Mugurditch I. 

Setrakian attempted to exercise influence over the new 



92 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Pontiff, and to advise and direct him in his administra- 
tion, as one who was familiar with the affairs of . Etchmi- 
adzin, where he had resided so long. He soon discovered 
that the new Pontiff was too great a man to fall under 
his influence, that he was a man of will and purpose, 
with an administrative ability that surpassed that of any 
of his predecessors since the days of Nerses Y. 

The Mschakists clamored that the new Catholicos must 
have an advisor, and that the advisor should be none but 
Setrakian, and if it were possible they wished to have 
Setrakian appointed advisor to Catholicos Mugurditch, 
as though the Catholicos were not responsible for him- 
self. 

On making a survey of his surroundings Catholicos 
Mugurditch was horrified to see that the seat of the Ar- 
menian Pontiffs was made, so to speak, the hole of wolves. 
Setrakian, during his unbridled sway, had placed the col- 
lege of the convent in the charge of atheistic and infidel 
teachers belonging to the Mschakist school — men of sor- 
did morals, on*^ of whom even lived in there with a wom- 
an who was not his wife, and with whom he had several 
children, and the boys of the college were committed to 
the tuition of such a creature. Setrakian had done these 
things with the belief that he was to become Catholicos, 
and thus he had taken the primary steps toward the ''ref- 
ormation " (understand deformation) of the Church. 

Catholicos Mugurditch could not tolerate such degra- 
dation, and he undertook to overhaul and renovate the 
whole institution, and to purify it according to the spirit 
of the Church of Armenia. 

Setrakian's mask soon came down. He arrayed him- 
self in open defiance to the Holy Pontiff. Ardzrouni's 



Armenia's ordeal 93 

paper, the Mschak, published brutal attacks upon the na- 
tion's idolized " Papa," and insulted His Holiness with 
such vile epithets as " savage," " lunatic," &c. The 
Mschakist teachers and professors of the college incited 
the students to make demonstrations against His Holi- 
ness. The students were already spoiled under the cor* 
rupt influence of their teachers. They went to the Holy 
Pontiff in groups and made silly representations ; they 
sent to the C^,thoiicos impudent letters, they cursed and 
swore at His Holiness, they spat and trampled on the 
portraits of the nation's revered head, they hurled oaths 
upon the Holy Pontiff in the sacred Cathedral of Etchmi- 
adzin while His Holiness officiated before the altar ; in 
short, anarchy reigned in Etchmiadzin. And all these 
things were done at the instigation of the " enlightened" 
Mschakist teachers of the college. 

These violent methods were employed to drive the old 
Pontiff out of his wits, and to bring about his resignation 
under terror. His very life seemed to be in peril. Almost 
every one in the great monastery was a stranger to His 
Holiness, and such a large number of its inhabitants 
turned to be his enemies that he could hardly trust in the 
sincerity of any, excepting his nephew, Mr. Khorene 
Khrimian, who was fortunately with him. 

But Catholicos Mugurditch was no ordinary man. He 
was a hero. He endured all of these for the sake of the 
nation to which he had been a devoted father for thirty- 
nine years. He employed rigorous measures to cleanse 
and purify Etchmiadzin of all its foreign corruptions 
which had found their way into the nation's sacred mon- 
astery during the recent few years. He dismissed the 
teachers and the students of the college and brought new 



94 Armenia's ordeal 

ones in their places. He gave a good shuffling to Se- 
trakian's adherents and dispersed them abroad on various 
missions. He banished Setrakian from Etchmiadzin by 
appointing him Father Superior to some monastery in 
some corner, and thus got rid of the chief agitator of all 
the troubles. It is likely that Setrakian would have been 
divested of his religious orders and punished as he de- 
served to be, if the Catholicos were not hampered by the 
Russian laws, which forbid the punishment of an ecclesi- 
astic by the Catholicos unless sanctioned by the Czar, 
and the Czar surely would not permit that such a villain 
should be punished. 

The Catholicos gathered worthy ecclesiastics within 
the walls of the convent. He introduced rules and reg- 
ulations in every department. He set the presses at work 
printing the Holy Scriptures. He reformed the financial 
department and directed that no more than 4, 000 roubles 
($2,000) should be used annually for his own personal 
expenses, while heretofore the treasury had been at the 
command of the Pontiffs, wheref rom they could draw any 
amount at will. 

Within one year the convent of Etchmiadzin under- 
went a great transformation, and the seat of the Armen- 
ian Pontiffs assumed an appearance worthy of its former 
times. Thus began the turning of the tide, and the athe- 
istic and church-reform sentiments gradually began to 
decrease and disappear. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 95 



CHAPTER VII. 

ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS NATIONAL REGENERATION. 

From the beginning of the year 1891 up to April, 1894, 
the Armenian Patriarchy of Constantinople was usurped 
by the villainous Khorene Aschikian, who, after making 
a shameful record for two years as Patriarch, had been 
driven to resign in the summer of 1890. 

On the occasion of Aschikian's instalment as Patriarch 
in August, 1888, Archbist p Khrimian being present at 
the ceremonies, addressed the delegation which brought 
the new Patriarch to Constantinople and was taking its 
leave to go back, and spoke the following prophetic 
words : ' ' Now, you go back and after two years come 
again to take away this Patriarch." It was not under- 
stood at the time what Khrimian exactly meant by saying 
this ; but it was just at the end of two years from that 
time that Aschikian was forced to resign in disgrace. 
But on his resignation Aschikian did not go back to Nic- 
omedia, whence he came — and whence Julian the Apos- 
tate came, by the way. He tarried in Constantinople, 
and after a few months he went and assumed the Patri- 
archy by order of the Sultan, against the will of the 
whole nation. The Armenian National Assembly was 
dismissed, and Aschikian ruled like a cruel dictator. 
"Whoever dared to raise a voice of disapproval against the 
Sultan-made Patriarch, he would be punished by the gov- 
ernment as a tr'^asoner. Aschikian was a mean, selfish, 
cowardly and vainglorious man, and he became an obe- 



96 aemenia's ordeal 

dient tool of the Sultan. Aschikian was but a blind in- 
strument, and during his dictatorship the Sultan himself 
was virtually the Patriarch of the Armenians. 

Aschikian was in no small measure responsible for the 
banishment of Archbishop Khrimian to Jerusalem. This 
monster, during his dictatorship, suspended, the saintly 
Archbishop Khorene Nar-Bey Lusignan in the exercise 
of his ecclesiastical functions. Archbishop Lusignan 
was subjected to severe persecution, both by Aschikian 
and by the Turkish government. His crime consisted in 
this, that he was a very intelligent Armenian, a great 
man, and a descendant of the last dynasty of Armenian 
kings. He was kept under police surveillance for months 
— and that of an outrageous character. When he went 
out anywhere he was followed and preceded by a pack of 
police and spies. When he called at the house of a friend 
a police cordon would be drawn around the house, and 
on his departure the house would be searched and its oc- 
cupants taken to the Department of Police for ' ' exami- 
nation " — and that is saying much in Turkey. These 
things were done to terrify the Armenians from going 
near to Archbishop Lusignan, and every Armenian feared 
to communicate with the beloved father of the nation. 
He lived in an isolated condition, and would not attempt 
to communicate with his friends lest they should fall in 
trouble on account of him. Prince Guy de Lusignan, 
the Archbishop's wealthy brother in Paris, could not suc- 
cor the unfortunate Archbishop because of the severe 
watchfulness of the spies who did everything to cut away 
from Archbishop Lusignan every source of helu. He was 
deprived even of the means of a living, and was compel- 
led to go and entreat the mercy of his cruel enemy 




PATRIARCH MATTHEW IZMIRLIAN. 



Armenia's ordeal 97 

Aschikian, in his pitiful distress, but he was turned out 

from the Patriarchate almost like a vagrant and this 

was the great Archbishop Lusignan, who had been the 
President of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Patriarchate ! 

Archbishop Lusignan was several times taken to the 
Yildiz Palace, the residence of the Sultan, to be ' ' exam- 
ined." On October 15, 1892, the Archbishop was once 
more taken to the Palace, and on the following day he 
dropped dead in his house from the effects of poison, 
which all believed had been administered to him in the 
Palace on the previous day. On his death a police cordon 
was drawn around his house, and no one was allowed to 
enter it. The government physicians pronounced the 
death to have been caused by heart-failure. The dead 
Archbishop had a hasty burial ; his death notice was 
not permitted to be printed until a week after the burial 
of his remains. But the sad news was quickly whiRpered 
about, and some hundreds of Armenians hurried to the 
Church to which the dead Archbishop's body had been 
removed for the funeral services. By this time every 
evidence of poison was seen on the body of the deceased 
prelate. Af t'^r the funeral services the body was hurried 
to the Armenian cemetery at Shishli, again under police 
surveillance, where it was buried like the corpse of a com- 
mon man. Some Armenians who followed the coffin on 
foot to the cemetery in spite of the rain, could not res- 
train their grief and were seen weeping. They were ar- 
rested and imprisoned for making a demonstration against 
the government. Thus ended the life of one of the great- 
est men that the Armenian nation has had in the present 
century. 

Aschikian's course was intolerable and proved disas- 



98 Armenia's ordeal 

trous to the nation. Simon Bey Maksud, an Armenian 
in the service of the Porte, who had a hypnotic influence 
over Aschikian and was known as a notorious traitor to 
his nation, was killed by certain exasperated Armenian 
patriots, and shortly afterwards an attempt was made on 
the life of Aschikian himself. Aschikian gave up the 
Patriarchal chair in terror and retired to live on a pension 
granted by the Sultan. The patriots to whom the relief 
of the nation was due were charged with being revolu- 
tionists, and were put to death in Turkish prisons under 
terrible tortures, many innocent Armenians also sharing 
their fate on the charge of being accomplices. 

The Patriarchal chair was vacated at a critical time, 
when the Turkish government was altogether pre- 
pared to begin the wholesale massacres for which end it 
had been arming the Kurds and the other Moslems since 
1891. The Armenian National Assembly was called, and 
Bishop Humyyag Timaksian was elected Patriarchal locum 
tenens. Thanks to Bishop Timaksian's energy and wis- 
dom, soon an election took place and Bishop Matthew 
Izmirlian, who had been the nation's second choice for 
Catholicos, was elected Patriarch of Constantinople, and 
was installed at a very critical time, when the Sassoun 
massacre already had taken place. 

Izmirlian was a man of great wisdom and courage, and 
he made such a brave stand that he excited the admira- 
tion of all the foreign diplomats in Constantinople. In 
his day the Armenian Patriarchate was raised to its for- 
mer high significance. The Sultan madly hated Izmir- 
lian, and desired his downfall that the butchery might go 
on without any protest from the Armenian Patriarchate. 
When Izmirlian paid his first visit to the Sultan in his 



Armenia's ordeal 99 

Patriarchal capacity to present his compliments to his 
sovereign, he met with a very cold and rude reception at 
the Palace, But Izmirlian was not afraid on account of 
this. In the nation's overwhelming calamities he made a 
heroic struggle for his people. A correspondent, occa- 
sionally writing from Constantinople to the New Yarh 
Tribune^ described Patriarch Izmirlian thus : 

t c * * * There is no other man in the Armenian na- 
tion so wise, so strong, so calm as Matthios Izmirlian, 
He is one of those men raised up in the supreme crisis of 
a nation's history — a god-like man. His face, seamed 
with the suffering of years, is resolute beyond compari- 
son. In his every word and action there is revealed the 
born king of men. If any man can lead this people 
through these troubles it is he. If he resigns there will 
be nothing then to hope for,* The Patriarchate will 
become the servile instrument of the Porte, and Ottoman 
oppression can proceed unchecked by any protest. While 
he stands and directs the affairs of the Armenian Church, 
there is still some faint hope for the wretched thousands 
in Anatolia. He has bound up the wounds made during 
the last six months to an extent known to only a few. 
When he falls the last hope expires."! 

In his first encyclical letter as Patriarch, addressed to 
the children of the Church of Armenia and their shep- 
herds, and given February 10, 1895, Patriarch Izmirlian 
said among other things, directing his words particularly 
to the clergy : 

' ' Be watchful that the grace of the Christian faith does 

*He has been driven to resign the Patriarchy under the threats 
of the Sultan, and about a fortnight after his resignation occurred 
the awful massacre of Armenians in Constantinople, in which tens 
of thousands perished. 

^;New York Tribune^ April 3, 1896. 



100 akmenia's ordeal 

remain immaculate. Be watchful that no novelties find 
their way into the Apostolic discipline, the canons, the 
forms and the traditions of the Holy Church of Armenia. " 

And in an especial encyclical letter addressed to the 
pastor of the Armenian colony in Marseilles, France, da- 
ted March 4, 1895, Patriarch Izmirlian wrote : 

*' We beg that you communicate our greetings of fath- 
erly affection to all [of the flock in Marseilles], and that 
you admonish them to remain bound to the nation in har- 
monious spirit, and to love its Holy Apostolic Church 
which is the centre of our unity. " 

Khrimian as Catholicos and Izmirlian as Patriarch, the 
nation's two ablest fathers at the helm of the nation, striv- 
ing for the regeneration and moral elevation of their peo - 
pie, gave hopes for the recovery of the dying Armenian 
nation. "Within a short time their good influence over 
the Armenians was discernible. Now it was not so fash- 
ionable for the people to look on the Church with con- 
tempt — the Church which for so many centuries had been 
the nation's ark of refuge and salvation. Sincere piety 
began to awaken in the benumbed hearts, and the people 
began to learn to have faith in God and seek consolation 
in the Church where their forefathers worshipped, and 
for which their ancestors suffered martyrdom. 

But, alas ! These signs of recovery proved to be like 
that which appears in an invalid on his death-bed, when 
the end is nigh, and which is soon followed by a relapse, 
and the patient sinks. 

Amidst these hopeful circumstances Armenia was over- 
taken by a tremendous calamity, and that country where 
God once planted the Garden of Eden, became a panorama 
of the awfulest bloodshed and cruelty that the world has 



Armenia's ordeal 101 

ever witnessed in the darkest centuries of barbarism. As 
a newspaper correspondent declared, after having pene- 
trated into Armenia at the risk of his life, to-day Arme- 
nia is from end to end a flaming hell, in which a nation 
is perishing for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
whom they will not renounce. 

Now, instead of the early morning church-bell is heard 
the report of the Moslem assassin's rifle, thundering on 
poor innocent creatures, and instead of the hymns chanted 
in the Churches in praise of the Eternal Father is heard 
the wail of defenseless women and children. 



102 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

PART THIRD. 
THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 



Never, o, * * * England, nevermore 
Prate thou of generous effort, righteous aim ! 
Betrayer of a people, know thy shame ! 

—Watson. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PO. ICY OF ENGLAND AND RUSSIA TOWARDS THE 
OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 

While Europe has been progressing in civilization the 
Ottoman Empire has remained in its slumber of mediae- 
val times. The world has undergone a revolution, yet 
the Turk is in his primitive barbarity, with all his Tartar 
instincts. The Ottoman Empire has been an anachronism 
in the nineteenth century, and it could have no place 
among the nations of Europe. Its destiny was to be 
swept away — some say to be driven to Asia, but no — its 
destiny was to be swept away from the face of the earth. 
It has been a proverb to say that ' ' Where the Turk goes 
no grass grows." The Turks have always acted as though 
they did not mean to stay among the nations of Europe. 
They behaved in their dominion like savages who had 
swooped upon a civilized country and must necessarily 
make their retreat. They robbed, murdered, burned and 



Armenia's ordeal 103 

destroyed. They did not consider themselves the own- 
'^rs of their possessions, as they were not, therefore they 
had no reason to spare anything. Such was the Ottoman 
Empire— organized brigandage. Such a monstrous power 
was unfit to have a place among the civilized nations. 

The Turk was destined to go, but who was to drive 
him away ? 

The Russian Empire presumed that it had the divine 
vocation of rendering this service to Christian civilization 
and to humanity — the service of removing the rotting 
Sick Man. It has been the policy of Russia to stand up in 
defense of the oppressed Christian nations under Turkish 
domination, and to free them one by one as the ooportu- 
nity presented itself. Englishmen will say that Russia 
did not do this simply out of humanitarian sentiments ; 
that Russia was a hypocrite, and while she oppressed her 
own Christian subjects she posed as the defender of the 
Christians in Turkey merely to further her designs for 
the conquest of Asia. It is but right to answer the Eng- 
lishman in the words of our Saviour : " And why behold- 
est thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but con- 
siderest not the beam that is in thine own eye ?" It is 
true that Russia has been following the above policy for 
the advancement of her own interests, but is it not com- 
mendable that she finds the furtherance of her interests 
in doing good to others ? "Why should we have a grudge 
against the Russian conquest of Asia, since Russia is do- 
ing it by noble means ? Where do governments ac- 
quire the right of ruling over nations except in seeking 
the welfare of humanity ? ^.s 

Russia has nobly shed the blood of tens of thousands 
of her children tor the liberation of Christian nations suf- 



104 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

fering under Turkish tyranny, and for transforming the 
Ottoman empire into a civilized country, and to-day 
Greece, Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovi- 
nia, Montenegro and Eastern Roumelia are freed from the 
claws of the blood-thirsty Turk through the efforts of 
Russia, -which countries are being lifted up in the arms of 
civilization. What has England done in the liberation 
of those countries except to thwart Russia's noble efforts 
and to obstruct the advance of civilization in Turkey ? 
England's hatred for Russia has impelled her to stand by 
the barbarous Turk, and to draw her sword against the 
liberator of oppressed Christian nations. 

As the selfishness of the Byzantine Empire, and its ha- 
tred for Christians outside of the Greek Church has fa- 
cilitated the Turkish invasions and the occupation of 
Armenia and Asia Minor by them, and has greatly helped 
the rise of the Ottomans, so, also, in the present century 
British selfishness and greed has been maintaining this 
€urse of Turkish domination, which was doomed to per- 
ish forty-three years ago. 

When Russia went to war with Turkey in 1853, for the 
purpose of fulfilling an old prophecy — that of putting an 
end to Ottoman domination on the four-hundredth anni- 
versary of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks — 
England drew her sword from its sheath, with the alli- 
ance of Napoleon III., in defense of the Turk. After a 
tremendous war Russia was defeated in her noble inten- 
tion. (It was noble, for had it been accomplished the 
world would not have witnessed the horrible butchery of 
myriads of Christians in 1860, 1876-77, 1894-96.) Peace 
was concluded and a treaty signed in Paris March 30, 
1856. England's vile ambition was accomplished. The 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 105 

barbarian Turk was vindicated, and " the Powers were 
bound to respect and guarantee the independence and 
territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire." What cared 
England for the Turk's millions of Christian subjects ? 
The Turkish Empire was a bulwark betw*^en Russia and 
the British interests (sordid interests !), and those inter- 
ests required that it should remain and its existence be 
guaranteed. In short, the Turk was the Englishman's 
favored dog, and he had the privilege of biting and 
bleeding innocent children. 

Knowing well what the Turk was, and what the Sul- 
tan's farcical Hatt for reformation amounted to, the fol- 
lowing was inserted in the treaty ot Paris in order to 
protect the Turkish Empire from further Russian en- 
croachments — encroachments which always came as bles- 
sings to the Christian subjects of the Turk : 

*^ Article IX. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, having 
in his constant solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, 
issued a Firman which while ameliorating their condi- 
tion without distinction of religion or of race, records his 
generous intentions toward the Christian population of 
his Empire, and wishing to give a further proof of his 
sentiments in that respect, has resolved to communicate 
to the Contracting Parties the said Firman emanating 
spontaneously from his sovereign will. 

' ' The Contracting Powers recognize the high value of 
this communication. It is clearly understood that it can- 
not, in any case, give to the said Powers the right to in- 
terfere either collectively or separately, in the relation of 
His Majesty the Sultan with his subjects, nor in the in- 
ternal administration of his Empire." 

Thus the Turk was protected against all foreign inter- 
meddling in any case, as regards his treatment of his sub- 
jects. And four years later— 1860 — thousands of law- 



106 ARMENIAS ORDEAL 

abiding Cluristians were butchered in Lebanon like as 
many sheep. Thanks to Napoleoa III., France had be- 
come master of the political situation and was prompt in 
sending an army of 5,000 French soldiers to Lebanon, 
where they remained fcr two years, and certain minister- 
ial reforn s were carried out in that province which are 
still enjoyed by its inhabitants. In this instance also Eng- 
land attempted to thwart foreign intervention in the inter- 
nal affairs of the Ottoman Empire, and wished to prevent 
France from interfering on behalf of the Christians of 
Lebanon. 

What British influence on the Porte has done to injure 
the Christian subjects of the Turkish Government in the 
following few years is summed up in the following words 
of Dr. George "Washburn, the President of Roberts Col- 
lege, Constantinople : 

" It was by his [British Ambassador Sir Henry Bul- 
wer's] advice that the half-savage Circassians were col- 
onized among the peaceful villages of Bulgaria [who a 
few years later were employed by the government to mas- 
sacre the Bulgariaiia] ; by his advice that the Turks re- 
fused to grant any privileges to the Bulgarian majority of 
the Orthodox Church, and thus stirred up an agitation 
which resulted in the events of 1876 ; by his advice that 
the government undertook to maintain its Mahometan 
character intact by preventing the conversion of Mos- 
lems to Christianity. He even went so far as to advo- 
cate the abolition of the capitulations which would have 
resulted in putting Christian foreigners in Turkey upon 
the same footing as the natives * * * On the whole, 
the relations of England and Turkey during these years 
were so managed as to alienate the symoathies of the 
Christian populations, to convince the Turks that^ whatever 
they might do, they had nothing to fear from England, and 
to encourage them in pursuing a course which was rapi'lly 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 107 

bringing on the ruin of the empire. * * -x- ^j^g Qj.q_ 
tans [who were in rebellion] had held out nobly ; Greece 
had sacrificed everything in the hope of securing the 
island which properly belonged to her ; Russia had used 
every influence to aid them ; but, thanks to English di- 
plomacy and Turkish obstinacy, the question was settled 
by granting to Crete a constitution, destined never to be 
put in force."* 

The Bulgarians, having been under the cruel jurisdic- 
tion of the Greek Church, were treated in an outrageous 
manner. For several years they had been begging of the 
Porte to be recognized independent of the Greek Church, 
and to have an Exarch of their own. This was a very 
simple question, and there was not any mischief under- 
lying it. But the British Government, which in imagi- 
nation sees the spectre of Russian intrigues in every in- 
significant movement in the Turkish Empire, opposed 
this. The British Ambassador in Constantinople advised 
the Porte to refuse the petition of the Bulgarians, and 
afterwards engaged himself in a foolish and absurd 
scheme of getting the Bulgarians under the jurisdiction 
of the Roman Papacy, so that they might be altogether 
alienated from the Russian Church and sympathy. The 
Bulgarians were determined to shake oflE the intolerable 
yoke of the Greek Patriarch, and the Porte was instiga- 
ted by the British Ambassador to repress the Bulgarians 
and not permit them to separate from the Greek Church 
lest they throw themselves into the arms of the Russian 
Church. The friction between the Porte and the Bulo-a- 
rians kept Bulgaria in an agitated condition for several 
years. 

*Rev. Geo. Washburn, D. D., "Eng-land and Turkey," Interna, 
tional Revieiv for June, 1879. 



108 ARMENIA S ORDEAL 

The Bulgarians prepared noL only to free themselves 
from the Greek Church but also from Ottoman misrule. 
Other Christian nations in the Balkan had also their own 
grievances against the Turkish tyranny. 

Some revolutionary outbreaks occurred in Herzego- 
vinia and Bosnia, with which the people in the principal- 
ities of Montenegro and Servia were in sympathy. These 
outbreaks did not originate in Russian intrigue, although 
when the situation was aggravated Russia remembered 
her duty to the Christians of the Ottoman Empire. The 
British Government, instead of seeking to pacify them by 
using its influence upon the Porte to ameliorate their con- 
dition and give satisfaction to the grievances of the op- 
pressed Christians, incited the Porte to crush these re- 
bjllious movements by a powerlul stroke. The British 
Government looked on all Christians in the Ottoman Em- 
pire with enmity, since they were a pretext for the Czar 
to attack Turkey — that bulwark of British interests. 

Not only the British Ambassador to the Porte advised 
the Turkish Government to adopt rigorous measures 
against the Christians in the Balkan, but also the British 
Government insisted that Austria should prevent the 
Dalmatians from giving aid to the insurgents. 

" Under the influence of General Ignatieff [the Russian 
Ambassador to the Porte]," writes Dr. Washburn, ''the 
Porte was carrying on the war in a languid, half-hearted 
manner, and would have yielded to any earnest pressure on 
the part of the European powers ; but England, and es- 
pecially Sir Henry Elliot [the British Ambassador to the 
Porte], said ' No ; the rebellion must be put down BY 
FORCE'.'* 

*Rev. Geo. Washburn, D. D., "England and Turkey," Interna- 
tional Review for June, 1879. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 109 

Turkey undertook to put down the rebellion by force, 
as England would have it done, and the Balkans were so 
much disturbed that the little principality of Servia de- 
clared war on its suzerain, the Sultan. (1875.) 

In order to strike terror to the Bulgarians and put a 
stop to their revolutionary movements, the Turkish Gov- 
ernment commenced a series of frightful massacres of the 
peaceful Bulgarians. These massacres were executed by 
the Moslem populace of the province and the savage Cir- 
cassians who had been but a few years since colonized 
among the Bulgarians by the Porte, upon the advice of 
Sir Henry Bulwer, the British Ambassador, who of course 
did not do it without a purpose. 

Several weeks after these massacres had begun, when 
inquiry was made in the British Parliament, Mr. Benja- 
min Disraeli replied that the British Government [oflB.- 
cially] did not have any knowledge of any atrocities in 
Bulgaria. In fact, the British Government did not care 
to know of the occurrence of such atrocities, and would 
be happy if others, also, would not care to know of it. 
Yet atrocities had occurred and the news was exploded. 
Mr. Disraeli took the trouble to add that probably the 
reports were exaggerated ; that it was a kind of irregu- 
lar warfare in which, no doubt, there were outrages on 
both sides. While the British Government pretended 
to be in ignorance as to whether the reported atrocities 
were true, it assumed the duty to prejudice the minds 
beforehand, that in case they should prove to be true the 
Turkish Government, if possible, should not be held to 
blame. 

Sir Henry Elliot, the British Ambassador in Constanti- 
nople, declared that the reports of atrocities were mon- 



110 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

strous exaggerations. But the impartial report of Mr. 
Eugene Schuyler, the United States Consul at Constanti- 
nople, who went to inquire into the facts personally, 
showed that no less than TWELVE THOUSAND Christ- 
ians, of all ages and both sexes, had been murdered in cold 
blood in Batak alone. The attitude of the British Prime 
Minister and Her Majesty's Ambassador in Constantino- 
ple were such as to give the Porte to understand that, do 
what it may, it had the full support of the British Gov- 
ernment, which was ready to belittle the Turk's crimes, 
and when necessary to fight for him. 

The British Prime Minister was undoubtedly exercised 
over the whole matter, but it was not the ruthless butch- 
ery of women and children, the deflowering of youthful 
maidens, the desecration of churches and the destruction 
of cities, that worried Mr. Disraeli. No — Mr. Disraeli 
only worried because these facts were published to the 
world, and Russia once more had a pretext to whip the 
Turk, as the champion of the Oriental Christians, and 
that would be injurious to British interests. At this time 
Mr. Disraeli solemnly emphasized the provisions of the 
Treaty of Paris to the effect that the European powers 
were bound to preserve the independence and the territo- 
rial integrity of the Ottoman Empire in any case. 

The Porte felt little apprehension from Russia, being 
encouraged by England's zeal and solicitude for the main- 
tenance of Turkey's territorial integrity, and by its anx- 
iety to cloak the crimes of the Turkish bashi-bozouks and 
regular soldiers by the much-abused word ' ' EXAGGER- 
ATION." The Turkish Government carried on the work 
of bloodshed without fear. The Turks were so confident 
of Britain's support that they believed that in case Russia 



Armenia's ordeal 111 

should declare war on Turkey in defense of the Chris- 
tians, .England would step forward and do the fighting 
for them as she had done twenty years prior to that. Any 
common Turk was sure ot it. When in 1877 the Turkish 
troops were ordered to the Russo- Turkish frontier in Ar- 
menia, the soldiers could hardly understand what it could 
mean, and they constantly asked of Mr. Norman, the 
correspondent of the London Tirnes, who accompanied 
them to the frontier, whether the British soldiers had 
not started yet to fight the Moscovite ; and they cher- 
ished the hop*^ that the IngiUiz (English) troops would 
overtake them before the frontier was reached. 

"When the whole of Europe was agitated on account of 
the monstrous butchery of Christians in the Balkans, and 
civilization demanded a remedy, England stepped for- 
ward to take the initiative in applying the remedy, lest 
Russia should begin to do it herself. But England step- 
ped forward, not to remedy the wrong, but to fool the 
world and prevent Russia from coming to the rescue of 
the Christians of the Balkans. England proposed that 
a Conference, consisting of representatives of the Powers, 
be held in Constantinople for the purpose of applying a 
remedy to the grave situation. 

This Conference was proposed to be held on certain 
principles set forth by Lord Derby, some important fea- 
tures of which were the following : 

First — That the Porte also should have its representa- 
tives in the Conference. 

Second — That the independence and the territorial in- 
tegrity of the Ottoman Empire was to be preserved. 

Third — That there was to be no question of the crea- 
tion of a tributary State. 



112 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Fourth- That the Porte should undertake in a protocol to 
be signed in Constantinople with the mediating Powers, 
to grant to Bosnia and Herzegovinia a system of local 
administrative autonomy ; by which was to be understood 
a system of local institutions which was to give the pop- 
ulations some control over their own local afiairs. 

Fifth — That there was to be some guarantee against 
maladministration in Bulgaria. 

This scheme was wholly a humbug, and would serve 
only to deceive the world that something was achieved. 
All that was substantial in this was that the Porte was to 
be constrained to promise that it would carry out certain 
administrative reforms in the Balkans. 

It was a mere repetition of the humbug of Cretan re- 
forms in 1869. The Turk was to promise, and then was 
to be left in full sway to do as he pleased, and the world 
was to be fooled that the matter had been settled in favor 
of the Christians. 

But the Turk had been so much petted by England 
that he had become like a spoiled child, and he would not 
comply with the advice of his best friend, the British 
Government. He stamped the ground with his feet, say- 
ing, " I won't," and left it for England to worry for the 
consequences, since she had bound herself to shoulder all 
his sins, and surely she was not going to let Russia come 
and take possession of Turkey. In fact, the Turk seemed 
to be desirous of seeing a war precipitated, for he believed 
that when once Russia should set her foot on Turkish 
territory England would go wild, and she would imme- 
diately rush forward to do all the fighting, leaving the 
Turk to have the pleasure of looking on at the "Christian 
dogs " tearing one another. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 113 

The Porte knew well that it was required only to give 
a mere promise, without being expected to fulfil it ; but 
it was reluctant to humiliate itself even so much as to 
acknowledge its fault and make the desired promise for 
reforms. To defeat the purpose of this Conference a 
sham Constitution was hastily drawn up by Mithad 
Pacha, the then Grand Vizier, and, according to a prev- 
ious arrangement, it was declared with the firing of guns 
— responded to by the barking of Constantinople's thou- 
sands of dogs — on December 23, 1876, just when Edhem 
Pacha was opening the meetings of the Conference as the 

President of that body. The criminal filled the chair 

of the presiding judge ! 

Edhem Pacha, in his opening speech to the Conference, 
declared : ' ' This is a constitutional government ; and 
the Constitution guarantees all possible reforms, not only 
to two or three provinces, but to the whole empire. What 
more can you ask ?" The representatives of the Porte 
in the Conference would not discuss the question for 
which the Conference was called, maintaining that it 
would be absurd to discuss reforms for certain provinces 
since reforms had been declared for the whole Empire. 
Thus, the representatives of the Powers were mocked, 
and nothing was left for them but to lug their bag and 
baggage and get out of Constantinople like fools, which 
they did, including Lord Salisbury, who represented 
England. The Turk did not see why he should not play 
mean tricks on the great Powers, since for one reason or 
another they felt themselves impotent to intervene by 
force, and confined themselves to time-killing parleying. 

The sham of a Constitution which was contrived for 
the purpose of tricking the Conference, and which 



114 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

worked with success in gaining the desired end, was now 
of no more use to the Sultan. Its author, Mithad Pacha , 
was banished to Arabia, the Constitution was abolished, 
and the Sultan took certain m^^asures to strike terror to 
the school of young fellows who were too enthusiastic 
about the Constitution. It is not surprising that the 
Sultan should have treated Mithad Pacha in this manner 
when he had rendered an important service to him, for 
a Pacha is like a shirt, which after doing service, goes 
into the wash-tub. 

Such was the Turk, and in such manner did the British 
Government essay to protect this Turk. And the Bul- 
garian horrors were carried on. 

Now that it became clearly seen that England could 
not put a stop to the reign of terror, it was next Russia's 
turn to see what she could do. Russia sent out a circu- 
lar dispatch to the Powers inquiring what they intended 
to do about the matter. There was no answer. What 
could they say ? After some business-like negotiations 
Russian troops were marched into Turkey, April 23, 1877, 
to apply a remedy in the only practical manner. But 
Russia feared that England might unsheathe the sword 
against the cause of Christianity, of humanity, and ol 
civilization, as it had done once before ; and therefore 
she did not fall upon Turkey with all her strength. In- 
stead of rushing on to Constantinople with a large army, 
she advanced slowly with a small force, in order to test 
England's patience and get Britain gradually accustomed 
to see her idol (the Turk) being beaten ; although this 
tardy advance gave the Turks ample time to ruin Bulga- 
ria and to butcher innuhierable thousands of Christiang^ 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 115 

for whose blood Mr. Disraeli will be called to answer be- 
fore the Supreme Judge in the last day. 

The crazy Turks imagined that England idolized them 
for love, and they were astonished to see that they were 
deserted by the Khunzer Ingilliz (hog of an English- 
man) in their hour of distress, and were left to fight the 
Moscovite alone. So long as Russia did not take posses- 
sion of Turkish territory permanently the British inter- 
ests were safe, and so long as the British interests were 
safe England said in her mind, " Oh ! Let the pig-head- 
ed Turks die like dogs in the battle-field. They are no 
better than the thousands of Christians they have been 
killing, and for whom I have not cared a jot." The war 
went on and the Turks were splendidly whipped. The 
victorious Moscovite army came as far as San Stefano, 
and the boom of the Russian cannon terrified the Turkish 
capital. The capture of Constantinople was a matter of 
a few days. Two things were left for the Sultan Abdul- 
Hamid, the Butcher — to flee from Constantinople or be- 
come the prisoner of the Czar. 

Mr. Alfred Austin says of England : 

" She bides her hour behind the bastioned brine." 

England did bide her hour all through the Russo-Turk- 
ish war, and when her hour arrived she loomed up from 
" behind the bastioned brine " with a powerful fleet in 
the sea of Marmora, and commanded Russia to halt in its 
march to Constantinople, with a determination to save 
the unspeakable Turk from his deserving doom and 
thereby preserve the British interests ! 

This England which threatened to go to war with the 
great Russian Empire, was the very same England which, 



116 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

only a year prior to that, could not force the Turk 
to stop in his massacre of Christians. But you know 
that England loves peace ; she does not like to fight- 
not for the good of others. But when it comes to her 
own selfish interests, you may be sure that she would 
fight like the devil. 



CHAPTER 11. 

BRITISH CRULiLTY. 

Now that it has been seen how low the British Gov- 
ernment would stoop for the sake of " British interests," 
it is necessary also to inquire into these " British inter- 
ests," and learn what they are. 

Are they the interests of the peoples of Great Britain ? 
Is the British Government committing such monstrous 
crimes out of a mad patriotism and excessive zeal for the 
benefit of the British nation ? Are the English people to 
be blamed for the black record of their government ? 
And when we speak of England and the English doing 
this and that, do we mean the English people ? 

By no means. 

I cannot believe that the British nation could approve 
of the sliamef ul deeds of the Government that bears their 
name and rules over them. I cannot believe that the na- 
tions of Great Britain — the people — could endorse the 
crimes of the British Government if they were made ac- 
quainted with them. I have been in England and have 
known the English to be a good people. I have seen 
them suffering from their government quite as much as 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 117 

Other nations have suffered and do suffer from it. But 
the English are a quiet people, and bear their sufferings 
with patience. They are taught to be obedient to their 
superiors, to respect them, and to endure their sufferings 
without plaint, whatever might be their lot. The Brit- 
ish Government is not worthy of the respect of such a 
people. 

The people of Great Britain are held in the hands of a 
pack of freebooters, who are sucking the life-blood out of 
them. These freebooters are the owners of the land of 
Great Britain, and of all her wealth and interests, and 
the people are like slaves under them. They operate 
their system of robbery with such cunning, that while 
they murder thousands by indirect means, they are recog- 
nized as the honorable and noble Lords, the protecting 
and solicitous fathers of the British, and they give them- 
selves out as the most humane, and most civilized men, 
good Christians, and seekers after the welfare of hu- 
manity. 

These freebooters are the peers, mostly the descend- 
ants of anci^^nt feudal chiefs- brigands, like the Kurdish 
chiefs now in Armenia. They are not savages now, like 
their ancestors. They carry on their robbery and cruelty 
by different methods on a much larger scale, and in the 
mean time they appear as honest and civil gentlemen. 

They own the land of Great Britain, and her posses- 
sions are their farm. The English Government consists 
of them, and they are the masters of the British Empire. 
It is the interests of these people that are called ' 'British 
interests." The common Briton has no interests abroad. 
He is even deprived of his rights at home. 

By the abuse of education their victims, the people, 



118 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

are made blind to their crimes, although suffering under 
them, and by the abuse of Christianity they are taught 
to forbear, whatever might be their lot. 

The patriotism of the people is abused and the patri- 
otic English youth is sent to die in foreign lands and on 
foreign seas for unjust causes — causes which are only for 
the advancement of the sordid interests of a school of sel- 
fish men who would evict the parents, the brothers and 
the sisters of the very brave fellow whom they send 
abroad to die for England — to die for the England where- 
in his nearest and dearest ones are impoverished by an 
unrighteous system of robbery, and are often evicted and 
deprived of the means of an honest living. 

What is the condition of the English people under 
these heartless landlords and Peers, on whose lips is the 
phrase " British interests ! British interests !" What are 
these British interests ? Are they the interests of the 
British peoples ? 

When I was in London in the winter of 1887-88, 1 b^w 
thousands of unemployed workingmen who had been de- 
prived of the means of making a living, and had come 
out to march in the streets in a body, and to make it 
known that they were at the point of starvation. There 
were no signs of violence about them. They had come 
out simply to make a peaceful demonstration, to hold a 
meeting in Trafalgar Square, and to say that they were 
starving, with their wives and children. They did not 
ask for charity, they wanted work. The humane British 
Government, which is so zealous for the well-being of 
humanity that ii sheds blood to prevent the slave trade 
in Africa, and fights for the salvation of ape-like African 
savages — in districts where precious stones or gold mines 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL Jjg 

abound — this noble British Government massed thousands 
of policemen to draw a cordon around Trafalgar Square, 
to not allow the unemployed unfortunates even to hold a 
meeting and to say that their families were starving ! 

Some of these miserables held a meeting in another 
quarter and a speaker declared, ' ' Our children are starv- 
ing in our homes like rats in their holes," A few days 
later, as I chanced to cross Blackfriars' Bridge, I saw 
some boatmen in a row-boat fishing out the corpse of a 
miserably clad man, who probably was one of those hun- 
gry workingmen whom I beheld marching up Ludgate 
Hill a few days before, and had sought relief from his 
sufferings by jumping into the merciful Thames, which 
is ever ready to receive those whom unmerciful London 
would reject. A paragraph was read and translated to 
me at the time out of a London newspaper, stating that 
a woman was walking in the street with her three little 
children, and although she wa^s not begging, the appear- 
ance of the group was so pitiful that it invited sympathy. 
She was arrested ty the police, together with her chil- 
drer:, lest some kind-hearted Derson would take pity on 
"them and offer them alms. 

The condition of the people of London is well described 
by Dr, Henry M. Field, in a book of travels^ from which 
I condense the following : 

"Can it be that a city so vast, so populous, so rich, 
has a canker at its root ? Do not judge hastily, but see 
for yourself. Leave Hyde Park Corner, and its proces- 
sion of nobles and princes ; leave ' the city,' with its 
banks and counting-houses, and plunge into another 
quarter of London, One need not go far away, for the 
J.ddiQg-places of poverty and wretchedness are often un- 
•,1er the very shadow of the palaces of the rich. Come, 



120 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

then, and grope through these narrow streets. You turn 
aside to avoid the ragged, wretched creatures that crouch 
iilong your path. But come on, and if you fear to go 
farther, take a policeman with you. Wind your way 
into narrow passages, into dark, foul alleys, up-stairs, 
story after story, each worse than the last. Summon up 
courage to enter the rooms. You are staggered by the 
foul smell that issues as you open the doors. But do not 
go back ; wait till your eye is a little accustomed to the 
darkness, and you can see more clearly. Here is a room 
hardly big enough for a single bed, yet containing six, 
eight, ten, or a dozen persons, lW living in a common 
herd, cooking and eating such wretched food as they have, 
and sleeping on tbe floor together. 

*' What can be expected of human beings, crowded in 
such miserable habitations, living in filth and squalor, and 
often pinched with hunger? Not only is refinement im- 
possible, but comfort, or even decency. What manly 
courage would not give way, sapped by the deadly poison 
of such an air? Who wonders that so many rush to the 
gin-shop to snatch a moment of excitement or forgetful- 
ness? What feminine delicacy could stand the foul and 
loathsome contact of such brutal degradation? Yet this 
is the way in which tens, and perhaps hundreds of thous- 
ands of the population of London live. * * * 

"Such is a true, but most inadequate, picture 
of one side of London. Who that sees it, 
or even reads of it can wonder that so many 
of these ' victims of civilization, ' [victims of bar- 
barism disguised in the cloak of civilization], find- 
ing human hearts harder than the stones of the street, 
seek refuge in suicide ? I never cross London Bridge 
without recalling Hood's 'Bridge of Sighs,' and stop- 
ping to lean over the parapet, thinking of the tragedies 
which those * dark arches ' have witnessed, as poor, 
miserable creatures, mad with suffering, have rushed 
here and thrown themselves over into ' the black-flowing 
river ' beneath, eager to escape 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 12t 

" Anywhere, anywhere, 
Out of the world ! * 

"Such is the dreadful cancer which is eating at the 
heart of London — poverty and misery, ending in vice 
and crime, in despair and death."! 

These are the children of men who have fought and 
died for England, and these are the people out of which 
come those who fight and die for England. Englishmen 
go to die in foreign lands at the command of the govern- 
ment, and as a recompense their children, their brothers 
and sisters, inherit such misery, while a minority of lazy 
men reap the benefit of England's territorial aggrandize- 
ment, and lead a life of shame in great wealth — wealth 
which is not earned by honest labor. The British Em- 
pire has become the property of inhuman hypocrites who 
sacrifice humanity for their own selfish comfort and un- 
cloyed greed. 

Behold the British nation, and the meaning of the 
phraze " BriLish interests." 

Look at the contrast between the United States of 
America and the Dominion of Canada, two countries side 



*" The bleak wind of March 

Made her tremble and shiver, 
But not the dark arch, 
Nor the black-flowing river. 

Mad from life's history, 
Glad to death's mystery 

Swift to be hurled 
Anywhere, anywhere, 

Out of the world ! " 

tHenry M. Field, D. D., From the I^kes of KilUirney to the Golden 
Horn, pp. 44-46. 



122 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

by side. Both of them are nearly the same size in area. 
See the flourishing condition of the United States and 
how populous they are, and then look at the desolate 
condition of Canada. While the United States are crowd- 
ed with over 70,000,000 inhabitants, the population of 
the vast Dominion of Canada, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, is less than that of the State of New York alone. 
Yet the tide of immigration is directed towards the Uni- 
ted States, and none care to go to Canada. What is it 
that prevents Canada from prospering, and what is it that 
keeps her in such desolation, if not the curse of British 
domination ? If Canada should be annexed to the United 
States, b'^f ore long it would flourish as much as the Uni- 
ted States now ; and the United States never could have 
been what they are to-day had they been still under 
British domination. Where British domination goes, 
there the common people are impoverished and deprived 
of the means of making a decent living. When the mas- 
ses are in poverty in a country, it is always safe to seek 
the source of the evil in the dominant government — there 
must be something wrong with the government. The 
masses are the productive power of a country, and they 
can make their living with ease if they are not hampered 
by an unrighteous system of government which deprives 
them of the nature's bounty which nature's God has pro- 
vided for humanity. 

Turn your eyes on Australia — that immense continent. 
What is its condition ? Is it over -crowded ? Is it pop- 
ulated ? Has it a population of three souls to every two 
square miles ? Why don't the Europeans go there in- 
stead of flocking to the United States, where they are 
not wanted any more ? 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 123 

Thousands are starving in England and are begging, 
not for bread, but for work whereby they may earn their 
daily bread. It would be a boon to them to have a small 
piece of land to cultivate, and to produce something 
whereby they may feed their hungry children. And 
there are millions and millions of acres in the possession 
of Britain which have been bought by the blood of the 
fathers of these starving wretches, but are now grabbed 
by a few "' noble Lords " who have no use for it, who do 
not cultivate it, neither would they let their own British 
people make any use of it in deriving therefrom the na- 
ture's blessing to which they have a rightful claim as the 
creatures of the God who created lands for the susten- 
ance of humanity, and not for British Peers alone. 

When the British Government is so cruel to its own 
people at home, what cruelty may not be expected of it 
for foreign nations, although it may appear in humanita- 
rian cloak ? 

" If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he 
is a liar : for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath 
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?' (I. 
John, iv., 20). How much more of a liar he is who has 
no mercy for his own brethren at home, and says that 
he seeks the welfare of humanity, and not seeing the beam 
that is in his own eyes, goes to Africa to pick the mote 
out of the eyes of the King of Ashantee and the Sultan 
of Zanzibar ? 

It is wrong to style the British Government a Chris- 
tian Power — it is an injustice to Christianity. It is re- 
viling Christ's sacred name. 



124 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION AND ENGLAND'S 

CRIME. 

Another Turko-Eussian war had occurred, and again 
England had intervened with her power to uphold the 
rotten Ottoman Empire, and to prolong the life of the 
Sick Man, whose life means death to his Christian sub- 
jects. The largest portion of Turkey in Europe was lib- 
erated from the Ottoman tyranny, yet the Sick Man was 
to be allowed to exist because British interests — brutish 
interests ! — required that there should be a mad dog on 
Russia's way to India. 

This meant that henceforward the lot of the Armenian 
subjects of the Turk was to be far worse than it had been 
heretofore. A large portion of the Turk's dominions was 
being torn away from him, and he was to be left to glut 
his ravenous belly upon his remaining Christian subjects 
— mostly Armenians. Hereafter the Armenians were to 
bear the monstrous burden which several nations had 
been bearing together. 

Archbishop Khorene Nar-Bey Lusignan, the able Ar- 
menian prelate, advised Patriarch Nerses to go and plead 
for Armenia to the Grand Duke Michael, who was dicta- 
ting to the Sultan the terms of peace at San Stefano, a 
few miles from Constantinople, where the conquering 
Russian army was encamped, its advance on Constanti- 
nople having been halted by the British fleet in the Mar- 
mora, which threatened to open fire on the Russian army 




ARCHBISHOP KHORENE NAR-BEY LUSIGNAN, 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 125 

and destroy the liberating Moscovite forces. At this se- 
rious juncture Patriarch Nerses allowed himself to be 
guided by the -wisdom of Archbishop Lusignan, and ac- 
cordingly he applied in person to th*^ Russian Grand 
Duke in the Moscovite camp in San Stef ano. This was a 
sudden turn in the policy of Patriarch Nerses, who had 
hitherto sought not to displease the Porte, and it was so 
much further from his thoughts to create an Armenian 
Question at the hands of Russia, that when the Turko- 
Russian war broke ouL he ordered his people to offer 
special prayers in all the Armenian Churches for the suc- 
cess of Turkey — done to please the Sultan and gain his 
good graces. 

This was a sinister beginning of the work. While 
Archbishop Lusignan's idea was an excellent and patri- 
otic one, the Armenians, from Patriarch down to the 
least sexton, were wholly unprepared for it. Archbishop 
Lusignan's suggestion was adopted by the Patriarchate, 
but I fear that the whole matter was not pushed forward 
according to his plans, and some unripe thoughts found 
their way afterwards into this most serious enterprise. 

Upon the appeal of Patriarch Nerses, the Russian 
Grand Duke caused a certain Article to be inserted in the 
Treaty of San Stefano with reference to the future of Ar- 
menia. It read as follows : 

^^ Article XVI. As the evacuation by the Russian troops 
of the territory which they occupy in Armenia, and which 
is to be restored to Turkey, might give rise to conflicts 
and complications detrimental to the maintenance of good 
relations between the two countries [i. e. Russia and 
Turkey], the Sublime Porte engages to carry into effect, 
without further delay, the improvements and reforms 



126 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

demanded 'by local requirements in the provinces inhabited 
by Armenians, and guarantee their security from Kurds 
and Circassians." 

It was a question who was to determine what the local 
requirements were. The Treaty made provision for de- 
termining that immediately by a Commission, composed 
of Russian and Ottoman d'^'legates. Russia meant busi- 
ness. The following article in the same Treaty provided 
for that indispensable necessity : 

" Article XIX. — The definitive limits of the territory 
annexed to Russia * * * will be fixed by a Commis- 
sion composed of Russian and Ottoman delegates. 

' ' This Commission in its labors will take into account 
the topography of localities, as well as considerations of 
good administration and other conditions to insure the tran- 
quility of the country. " 

This does not mean little when it is Russia that dic- 
tates it. But British interests could not allow that Rus- 
sia should have her own way. The British Government 
was astounded to see that Russia picked up an Armenian 
Question of which nobody even dreamed. It was already 
an awful grief for Great Britain to see that the Chris- 
tian nations of the Balkan were being unmercifully liber- 
ated from the yoke of her beloved Turk. And she 
endeavored to console her miserable heart with the thought 
that, anyhow, at last Russia could have no more pretext 
to bother the sweet Turk, there being left no more Sla- 
vonic races under Turkish domination. It was a dread- 
ful shock for Britannia to see that after all these mis- 
chiefs done to her darling Turk, Russia meant not to 
leave her pet dog alone, and was going to take the life 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 127 

out of that dear animal by prodding the poor doggie 
with an awful Armenian Question. 

" Ah ! " sighed Mr. Disraeli, "I will fix that Armenian 
Question. Russia has been taking things altogether too 
far." 

When, in 1878, in International Conference was assem- 
bled in Berlin, consisting of the representatives of the six 
European Powers and of Turkey, for deliberation on the 
Eastern Question, Russia was stopped from taking any 
single handed action for the security of the lives, prop- 
erty and honor of the Armenian people. 

The British representatives were particularly anxious 
in crippling the Armenian Question and making it null 
and void. Lord Salisbury took up the Armenian Ques- 
tion and gave it an all-around trimming, until nothing 
but a paragraph of meaningless words was left. In the 
place of the 16th Article of the Treaty of San Stefano, 
the 61 at Article of the Treaty of Berlin was substituted — 
reversed in numbers as well as in spirit. It read as fol- 
lows : 

^^ Article LXI. — The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry 
out, without further delay, the ameliorations and reforms 
demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhab- 
ited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their security 
against the Circassians and the Kurds. It will periodi- 
cally make known the steps taken to this effect to the 
Powers, who will superintencl their application. " 

This whole article would not amount to anything ex 
cepting for the last clause, which gave assurance that 
the Powers would superintend the application of the re- 
forms. The meaning of the word superintend was under- 
stood by all with its definition as put down in the die- 



138 ARMENIA'S OBDBAL 

tionaries. "Webster defines the meaning of this word as 
follows : 

*' To have or exercise the charge and oversight ; to 
oversee tcith the power of direction ; to tahe care of with au- 
thority." 

To superintend a work is understood by all to mean, 
to see that the work is done / to push the work through. 
But, after eighteen years of inaction, Lord Salisbury de- 
fined the meaning of this word in an altogether different 
sense. It meant, according to Salisburian definition, 
simply to hole wpon^ as a stork would look down below 
from his high perch on the minaret without in any way 
being concerned what passed on. And the Signatory 
Powers of the Treaty of Berlin discharged their duty con- 
scientiously by merely looking upon the Armenian hor- 
rors of 1894-96, as city after city was burned and pil- 
laged, and thousands upon thousands of human beings, 
pursuing their peaceful vocations, were ruthlessly butch- 
ered, the chastity of the women was frightfully outraged, 
and maidens of the tender ages of six and seven years 
died, falling victims to the vicious lust of Hamidieh 
troops and bashi-bozouks. And the European Powers 
faithfully discharged their duty, for which they were 
sworn in the name of the Almighty, by coolly looking 
upon this horrible panorama. [By the way, their sense 
of decency is so tender that they may be shocked at my 
immodesty in alluding to such shameful details of these 
atrocities, although their enaction could be tolerated by 
them easily enough.] 

While the Armenian horrors were in progress in the 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 129 

winter of 1895-96, Lord Salisbury, speaking of the claims 
of the Armenians on Europe for protection, said : 

' ' All that there is is an Article in the Treaty of Berlin, 
in which six Powers agree, not with any outside person 
but with each other, that IF the Sultan promulgated cer- 
tain reforms, they would watch for the execution of those 
reforms. That is the whole. * * * Nobody can ad- 
duce from that Article an undertaking on the part of a 
single power to go to war to compel the Sultan to govern 
any better than he does."* 

If the Sultan did have the pleasure of carrying out re- 
forms in his dominion, then the Powers would watch ; 
or, in the sense that Salisbury understands, would be idle 
spectators to the operations, whatever they may be. And 
what sort of reforms was the Sultan expected to carry 
out, according to the stipulations of this Treaty, if he 
were ever pleased to do it? — "Reforms demanded by 
local requirements." Who was to determine what the 
local requirements were ? — Nobody. 

It will be se*^n that the 61st Article of the Treaty of 
Berlin was a mere humbug, and from the very beginning 
it was England's object to help Turkey in killing the 
cause of Armenia. 

The Armenian delegation sent by the Patriarchate of 
Constantinople to plead for Armenia at the Berlin Con 
ference returned from its mission greatly disappointed 
and discouraged. The idea of creating an autonomous 
Armenia at the hands of the European Powers, which the 
Patriarchate desired, being altogether new and sudden 

*Lord Salisbury's speech at the banquet of the Nonconformist- 
Unionist's Association, in London, Jan. 31, 1896, as reported in the 
London Times of the following day. 



130 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

the Armenians were ignorant of the weight and difficul- 
ties of such a great task. 

I must confess that the Armenian Patriarchate made a 
serious mistake in its demands for Armenia. It demand- 
ed that the Armenians should have a voice in the govern- 
ment of their country, &c. The Armenians M^ere wholly 
unprepared for such a scheme. Under the circumstances 
they could neither get what they demanded, nor could 
they get along with it even if they did get it. There- 
fore the demands of the Patriarchate in this respect were 
both unripe and impracticable, and gave ample opportu- 
nity for the malicious designs of the British Government. 
The only practical thing for the Armenians to have de- 
manded at that time, and even now is, that either Russia 
or Austria should occupy Asia Minor and Armenia in the 
manner that England now occupies Egypt. 

The Armenians imagined that their demands could be 
realized within two months by merely sending a delega- 
tion to the Conference of the Christian Powers assembled 
in Berlin, and laying before them their grievances and 
supplication. Poor Armenians ! They looked upon the 
Powers of Europe as Christian Powers — Christian accord- 
ing to their conception — and thought that their aim and 
occupation was nothing but to do good, especially to 
their own co-religionists, the Christians. The European 
diplomatic world was still an unexplored province for 
them. 

The outcome of the Berlin Conference was disappoint- 
ing to the Armenians, but they had plenty of hopes for 
the future. "At least we have gained recognition by the 
Christian Powers," said the Armenians among them- 
selves, and that was a sufficient consolation for them. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 131 

Their hope rested in the future — that is, iu the future 
policy of Great Britain. 

The Armenians could not understand the true meaning 
of these transactions ; they were satisfied with the know- 
ledge that their case was taken charge of by the Great 
European Powers, of whose integrity and honest purpose 
they had no any doubt. The Armenians did not under- 
stand the full meaning of the annulment of the Treaty 
of San Stefano and the substitution of the Treaty of Ber- 
lin, nor what effect it had on the Armenian cause. Their 
impression was that Russia was going to liberate Arme- 
nia, and England stepped in to take charge of the matter 
herself — something which would even gratify their heart 
as England had the name of being a more liberal power 
than Russia, which intermeddled with the affairs of the 
Church of Armenia. 

Soon followed the Cyprus Convention, which was a 
fatal blow to the Armenian cause — a treaty, whereby the 
British Government pledged to Turkey its armed support 
against any future encroachment on the part of Russia in 
Turkish territory. Russia could not dare in the future 
to come to the assistance of the Armenians without 
giving offense to England, and without being prepared 
to fight the British Lion. Great Britain received the 
island of Cyprus as advance payment for the future arm- 
ed support which she pledged herself to give against 
Russia. Now, so long as the British Government occu- 
pies the island of Cyprus by virtue of the Cyprus Con- 
vention, it continues to be the ally of the Turk, and its 
pledge to the Porte for armed support against Russia 
stands good, and the Defender of Oriental Christians 
cannot set foot on Ottoman territory in Asia without 



132 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

encountering the armed resistance of England. The 
British Government holds Russia at bay on the Armen- 
ian frontier. 

Lord Salisbury again fooled the Armenians by inspir- 
ing in them vain hopes, while he was planning for their 
destruction. He caused a certain clause to be inserted 
in the Cyprus Convention, which reads thus : 

"In return, his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, promi- 
ses to England to introduce necessary reforms, to be 
agreed upon later between the two Powers [i. e. England 
and Turkey], into the government and for the protection 
of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these 
territories" [i. e. the territories of the Sultan in Asia.^ 

The Armenians were overjoyed to see that England had 
taken such an active interest in their cause that she came 
and occupied Cyprus to be nearer to them, and exacted 
Turkey's promise to introduce in their country necessary 
reforms, to be agreed upon between Turkey and England 
later — of course not very late, they thought. They did 
not see that the British Government's aim was directed 
to defeat any attempt on the part of Russia for coming to 
their rescue in case of emergency, and did not imagine 
that England could not but mean to do something for 
the amelioration of their condition. The British Govern- 
ment pledged her armed support against Russia if the 
latter attempted any encroachment on Turkish territory 
in Asia, that is to say, Armenia. Armenia was the speci- 
fied territory where any future Russian encroachment 
was to be arrested. Lord Sherbrook spoke but the truth 
when he said at the time that the policy of the British 
Government had turned the keys of hell upon the Chris- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 133 

tians of Turkey — a violent form of expression, yet it was 
the sober truth. 

As regards the Sultan's promise, exacted by England, 
regarding the introduction of reforms in the Asiatic 
provinces of Turkey, Lord Salisbury, in his infamous 
speech at the banquet of the Nonconformists already al- 
luded to, gave the following explanation : 

'* How people got that idea of the convention into 
their heads I cannot imagine, for there is not a trace of 
any undertaking in that convention on the part of Eng- 
land that she would interfere physically and materially 
on behalf of the oppressed subjects of the Sultan. I say 
this with some assurance, because it so happens that I 
drew the Cyprus Convention myself, and I helped in 
drawing Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, and therefore 
I have a very vivid recollection of the fact." 

In this instance, also, the British Government meant 
to assume the duty of merely gazing on the operations of 
the Turk if he would do anything, and it remains faith- 
ful to its shameful duty. Russia cannot go on Turkey, 
the British Government shall not care a jot if the Armen- 
ians are exterminated, and the Turk is at liberty to do 
his worst — which he is doing. 

The Armenians reviewed these transactions at the time 
with optimistic eyes, but at the end Lord Salisbury's noto- 
rious speech, and the shameful policy of the British Gov- 
ernment, showed that the object of the British Govern- 
ment towards the Armenian people and cause all along 
had been but malice. 

At the present the Armenian situation in a nut-shell is 
as follows : 

The Turk will not cease to massacre the Armenians 



134 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

until they are all exterminated in his Empire. Russia is 
the only Power that has saved all the other Christian na- 
tions from the Turkish yoke, but Russia now hesitates to 
come to the rescue of the Armenians because she does not 
want to have a war with the British Empire on account 
of Armenia, and she will not save Armenia until she is 
assured that by so doing she will not incur a war with 
Glreat Britain. The British Government will not let 
Russia save Armenia, and it means to fight Russia if 
Russia should attempt to march into Armenia. The 
British Government has been doing, is now doing, and 
intends to do all in its power to maintain the Turkish 
Empire. The British Government would neither allow 
Russia to take possession of Armenia nor would occupy 
Armenia herself. Great Britain does not intend to take 
possession of Armenia herself ; she does not want Ar- 
menia because she does not want to have a common fron-^ 
tier with the Russian Empire, for in that event she will 
be compelled to maintain an immense standing army as 
well as any other European Power — something which she 
does not need to have so long as she has no common fron- 
tier with any of the Great Powers. There is a deadlock 
between England and Russia, and the massacre of Ar- 
menians will continue so long as this deadlock may last. 
The British Government has been the greatest obstruc- 
tionist and the greatest hypocrite. The British Govern- 
ment pretends to be the only Power striving for the good 
of the Armenians, while it is responsible for all these Ar- 
menian horrors. The British Government will always 
find some one to lay the blame on ; its advocates will 
always accuse some one for hindering England from sav- 
ing Armenia. xV liar is never at a loss for an excuse. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 135 

One day they will blame the United States for bothering 
the British Government in Venezuela ; another day thej 
will blame Germany for not allowing it to swallow up 
the Transvaal ; another, they will blame Russia and an- 
other day some one else. (Who can tell whether they 
will not next lay the blame on the writer of these lines 
for publishing this book ?) The British Government will 
always hold all others as the enemies of the Armenians, 
while it has been itself the greatest enemy that the Ar- 
menian nation has ever had. 

The Armenian Question can be solved only when the 
British Government will revoke the Cyprus Convention, 
withdraw from supporting Turkey, and let Russia or 
Austria occupy Turkey. We have had too much of this 
British duplicity and criminal trickery ; and after the 
butchery of hundreds of thousands of inoffensive human 
beings it is about time that the British Government 
should begin to be ashamed of itself for its monstrous 
crime. 

Must a whole nation be exterminated by the sword be- 
cause British interests so require ? If all the British 
Peers were cannibals, and instead of maiataming and sup- 
porting the Turkish Government as they do now, they 
lived on nothing but Armenian flesh, the Armenian na- 
tion would have been comparatively fortunate ; for to- 
day, owing to the criminal policy of the British Govern- 
ment, the sword of the Turk is consuming in one year 
more Armenian lives than all the British Peers put to- 
gether could consume in their life-time by devouring 
Armenians. 



136 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PORTE'S PRELIMINARY STEPS FOR THE SUPPRES- 
SION OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION, AND 
ENGLAND'S SHAMEFUL PART. 

Shortly after the Treaty of Berlin the British Govern- 
ment despatched a number of consular officers with cer- 
tain instructions to go and inquire into the general con- 
dition of Armenia, for the alleged purpose of ascertain- 
ing the necessary measures of reform. 

These officers -were secretly commissioned to make ef- 
forts for the killing of the Armenian Question. In the 
first place they baptized Armenia with a new name ; they 
called Armenia with the name Kurdistan, meaning the 
land of the Kurds. And who were the Kurds? — They 
were predatory savage tribes who lived on the highlands 
of Armenia, in tents, and had no place where they lived 
permanenLly the year round. They roved all over the 
country, and earned their honest living by means of their 
daggers. It was against these savages that the Armen- 
ians wanted protection, and the Signatory Powers of the 
Treaty of Berlin recognized in the 61st Article of that 
treaty that they were a bad lot, and that the Armenians 
needed protection against them. But the British consular 
officers recognized these professional thieves and assassins 
as the rightful owners of the country, and the Armen- 
ians were made guests in the home of these Kurds. 
This alone settled the Armenian Question. There was 
no Armenian Question according to this doctrine of the 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 137 

British Government. The country belonged to the 
Kurds, what did the Armenians want ? After that for 
many years Armenia was officially recognized by the 
British Government as Kurdistan, and when a question 
was made in the Parliament whether such and such out- 
rages reported from Armenia were true, the under-sec- 
retary for Foreign Affairs would reply that the Govern- 
ment had no information of such an occurrence in Kurd- 
istan. 

The consular officers despatched to Armenia further 
published information regarding the imaginary virtues of 
the Kurds ; and when it came to saying anything about 
the Armenians they would pick cut what was injurious to 
them. Among others, these consular officers raised a 
question as to whether the Armenians did really form a 
majority of the population, to warrant their claims to 
having the administerial reforms which they desired — an 
absurd question ! If Armenians were found to form but 
a minority in their mother country, it appears that the 
hordes of Mohammedan savages would acquire the right 

of doing as they pleased with the helpless minority a 

splendid style of majority rule ! 

The Armenians suffered under the various Mohamme- 
dan elements, and they asked for redress ; they asked for 
justice ; they asked for the security of life, property and 
honor. But these things they had no right to have be- 
fore the eyes of the British Government, unless they 
formed a majority of the population — an absurd pretext 
to obstruct the progress of civilization, and to keep Tur- 
key intact in her barbarian character that it might the 
better serve as a barrier between Russia and the British 
interests in India. When has it been heard that preda. 



138 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

tory wild tribes, and civilized citizens living in cities, 
pursuing manufactures and arts, or industrious peasants 
pursuing agriculture, have been taken into account as 
equals in having voice in the construction of a govern- 
ment ? If the British Government is so zealous to do as 
the majority in a country would have, why does it not 
respect the will of the majority in the countries that it 
goes to grab ? And why does it seek the will of the 
majority in Turkey alone when the majority consists of 
savages and cut- throats ? Did the British Government 
occupy Egypt by the consent of the majority of Egypt- 
ians ? If to-day a popular vote were to be taken in 
Egypt as to whether the natives want England to stay in 
there or not, it is very likely that she would be voted 
out with an overwhelming majority. Did the British 
fleet ask the consent of the majority of the natives when 
it bombarded Zanzibar ? Did Britain respect the will of 
the native savages when she invaded Zululand, Matabella 
and Ashantee ? Then what the deuce impelled her to 
respect the will of the savage Kurds in introducing re- 
forms in the administration of Armenia ? 

This absurd question of majority as regards the intro- 
duction of administerial reforms in Armenia, was simply 
a round-about suggestion to the Porte that it could get 
rid of the Armenian Question by diminishing the number 
of Armenians, and the Turk was quick in taking the hint. 
Hence the Turkish doctrine that ''The solution of the 
Armenian question consists in the annihilation of the Ar- 
menian race." 

The Porte concluded that the shortest way of laying 
the Armenian Question to sleep was in seeing that the 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 139 

Armenians did form a minority — and a good minority at 
that. 

The Circassian mountaineers in Daghistan had but re- 
cently been brought to submission by Russia, and they 
had begun to emigrate to the domains of the Sultan 
rather than live under the rule of the Czar and be res- 
trained from exercising their wild habits. The Porte 
welcomed them all with open arms, and settled them in 
the fertile fields of Armenia, to live on the fat of the 
land. When these Circassian hordes entered Armenia 
they were in abject poverty ; they had almost nothing 
but the daggers and the pistols in their girdles, which 
are like inseparable members to a Circassian's body. 
Within two or three years these Circassians were all in a 
prosperous condition, without labor or toil. They had 
all the cows, sheep, horses, rugs and other necessities 
that they cared to have, and they had so many cattle that 
they drove herds of them to the towns and sold them for 
any price to raise money for the purchase of better arms 
— swords, revolvers, rifles — the instruments wherewith 
they earned their livelihood. And where did they get all 
these things ? By robbery and plunder. 

Even then the Porte attempted to begin the work of 
devastating the homes of the Armenians, at the hands of 
Sheikh Oubedullah, a Kurdish chief, who carried mat- 
ters to such excess on the Persian frontier that the Porte 
was at last compelled to stop him, upon the strong rep- 
resentations of the Shah of Persia. 

Meanwhile, the Armenians remained idle, and expected 
a speedy settlement of the matter by the good British 
Government. Everybody pursued his own course ; every- 
body minded his own business. Nobody felt the neces- 



140 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

sity of any preparation ; nobody realized the gravity of 
the future ; nobody could imagine that England was 
playing a treacherous part. Everything went on as be- 
fore, and there was a general quietness among the Ar- 
menians. They had confidence in their Patriarch and 
Ihey did not think that they had any personal duty them- 
selves. Dullness reigned in the Patriarchate. The Pa- 
triarch simply waited to see what good turn the events 
might take, and to tell the truth, little was thought of 
the Armenian Question, which was like a spark that ap- 
peared and disappeared again. 

The Protestants kept on in their course and the athe- 
ists in theirs. The Armenian newspapers in the Turkish 
capital were filled with unimportant local news, informa- 
tion about Parisian life, translations of French novels 
daily printed in large instalments to fill vacant space 
which could not be filled by the empty head of the edi- 
tor, edifying ( !) articles on the discoveries of Darwin, 
showing that men were the descendants of monkeys (a 
good consolation to those who are not descended from 
any better creatures), and a lot of other sorts of trash 
which could not serve for the culture of the mind or the 
elevation of the spirit of their readers. 

But the Porte was not idle. The press censorship 
gradually grew strict. Obstructions were raised before 
the educational work of the Armenians, which was al- 
ready demoralized internally. Schools were closed and 
teachers persecuted — imprisoned, expelled or banished. 
Laws and regulations were put in force fettering the 
movements of business and agriculture, and making it 
necessary to procure a permit from the Government for 
almost everything imaginable — and it takes a good deal 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 141 

of time and bribes to secure a permit in Turkey. Grad- 
ually business became slack, taxes increased, and small 
shop-keepers had to close up their stores. It became 
harder and harder to make a living. 

Petty brigandage increased in the provinces ; robbers 
and assassins were not molested by the Government. 
Kurds and Circassians grew bolder and bolder, and they 
no longer waited on the highways for their prey ; they 
would go into the villages by daylight and commit mur- 
der without fear. The Government at first would arrest 
some and set them free the following day ; afterwards 
it pretended to be unable to catch the lawless assassins ; 
later on it arrested and imprisoned those Armenians who 
would make any complaint to it of any acts of brigan- 
dage, and would charge them with maliciously inventing 
falsehoods, with intent to throw discredit upon the com- 
petence of the Government. 

The Government began to search the houses of Armen- 
ians for arms, which Armenians did not have, it being 
forbidden for Christians to possess any arms, although 
the Moslems would go about in the streets armed to the 
teeth. * 

*" The Sacred Law of Islam forbids the Christians to possess 
arms. This is so well known that it is not necessary to dwell up- 
on it. The Sultan engaged in the Treaty of Paris in 1S56 to put 
the Christians, in this as in all other respects, on a footing of per- 
fect equality with his Musulman subjects. But that promise, like 
all the Sultan's promises to ameliorate the condition of his Chris- 
tian subjects, has remained a dead letter. In the Berlin Memor- 
andum, Germany, France, Austria, Russia, and Italy proposed to 
demand the fulfilment of the Sultan's treaty engagement to 
permit the Christians to possess arms. Lord Deiby strenouslv 
opposed this most reasonable suggestion on the ground that if 
the Christians were armed 'a collision would be inevitable ' ! So 



143 ARMENIA'S ORDBAL 

The Government knew that the Armenians were un ■ 
armed, yet it searched their houses on the pretext of fear, 
and became positive that they possessed no instruments 
of self-defense in case of an emergency. 

The Armenians were not aware that this was ths be- 
ginning of a destructive scheme. They thought that the 
Government really suspected them, and that everything 
would be all right with them if they only showed that 
there was no ground to suspect their loyalty, and thus 
they behaved accordingly. 

The Armenian town of Zeitoun, the inhabitants of 
which possessed arms, and, owing to their bravery, lived 

he avoided the collision by leaving the Christians unarmed and 
helpless at the mercy of the armed Musulmans. [But Lord Derby 
did not care for the Christians in Turkey, he strove for the British 
interests alone.] The other Powers replied 

'That the Christians would prefer the disarming of the Musul- 
mans: but as it would be impossible, without serious disturbance, 
to apply such a measure to men who had been accustomed to 
wear arms from their childhood, the only way of establishing 
equality between the two populations would be to extend the 
right to wear arms to Christians,' 

" But Lord Derby was obdurate, and the other Powers acted 
without him. Pushed into a corner, the Sultan appealed to the 
Sheik-ul-Islam (the supreme arbiter, without whose sanction the 
Sultan cannot alter an atom of the Sacred Law). The Sheik-ul- 
Islam, in order to give solemnity to his decision, summoned the 
Ulema of Constantinople in consultation. And then he issued his 
peremptory/^/z'« against the possession of arms by Christians, 
on the ground that the unchangeable Sacred Law forbade it. 
[Th3 Sheikh-ul-Islam could issue sxxch/etz>as so long as the British 
Government backed the unspeakable Turk.] That was in 1877, 
during the sitting of the conference of the Great Powers at Con- 
stantinople. The Armenian subjects of the Sultan are thus liter- 
ally as defenceless as a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves." — 
Canon Malcolm MacColl, England's Responsioility Towards Armenia, 
Third Edition p. 12. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 143 

in an independent state, was set on fire in 1884 by Turk- 
ish incendiaries, and the whole city was consumed by fire 
leaving its 10,000 Armenian inhabitants homeless and 
destitute. It was evident that the Government had a 
finger in this crime in order to reduce the Armenians of 
Zeitoun into total submission. 

In the spring of 1885 several Armenian notables were 
suddenly arrested and imprisoned in Van, in the heart 
of Armenia. Archbishop Khrimian, who was a native of 
Van, was at this time living in retirement in his birth- 
place, after having served his nation as Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. He was one of the many that were arrested 
and was carried to Constantinople. Mr. Mugurditch 
Portoukalian, a schoolmaster in Van, was likewise sud- 
denly seized and taken to Constantinople. No charges 
were preferred against them in the capital, for they had 
not been at fault, and they were released in Constantino- 
ple with the mandate that they could not leave the capi- 
tal. They were virtually prisoners in Constantinople. 
There was no reason why the Government should treat 
them in such manner, but it wanted to persecute and op- 
press the Armenians, so that if they did not think of re- 
belling at all they should awake and make some seditious 
movement, which would furnish a nice pretext to the 
Government to fall on them. 

Mr. Portoukalian did not remain in obedience to the 
mandate of the Government, and he left Constantinople 
for Marseilles,' in France, where he started to publish a 
semi-weekly Armenian newspaper, the Armenia, wishing 
to make Armenians familiar with the state of affairs in 
the interior of Armenia, whence he came. Mr. Portou- 
kalian at first had no intention to publish anything 



144 abmbnia's obdeal 

against the Porte itself. Perhaps he did not even know 
that the misgovernment of the Governor of the Province 
of Van was in harmony with the instructions given him 
by the Porte. His paper at the beginning was so care- 
fully edited as not to give offense to the Turkish Govern- 
ment. Assuming that the lamentable state of affairs in 
Armenia were against the wishes of the Porte, and that 
should the Porte be informed of the deeds of its Govern- 
ors in the interior it would not be slow in applying a 
remedy, as any Government should do, Mr. Portoukalian 
published an article in the first issue of his paper regard- 
ing recent occurrences in Van, to which he called the 
attention of His Excellency the Grand Vizier. The arti- 
cle was well worded, and written with lavish compli- 
ments for the Sultan and the Grand Vizier which is cus- 
tomary with petitioners and editors in Turkey. Mr. 
Portoukalian sent two copies of this issue in a sealed 
letter addressed to His Excellency the Grand Vizier, of 
course hoping that it might have its good effect. But 
the Grand Vizier answered this polite petition by sending 
instructions to the postal authorities to debar the Armenia 
from Turkey. It was a crime for an Armenian to make 
any complaint touching the incompetency of any Govern- 
ment official in the discharge of his duties. It was a 
crime for an Armenian to speak of justice and ask for re- 
dress. The Porte was satisfied with the conduct of all 
its officials, and would not hear any complaint about them. 
Not only the circulation of the Armenia in Turkey was 
prohibited, but also the Government arrested all those 
who happened to have copies of it, and treated them as 
treasoners — banishment to Tripoli in Africa being the 
penalty. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 145 

The case of the Armenian and the Turk had become 
like that of the lamb and the wolf ; it did not matter 
what the Armenian said or did, he would be adjudged by 
the Turk to be guilty in every instance. The Turkish 
Government already had taken steps toward exercising 
stringent measures over the Armenians, for the purpose 
of gradually weakening and finally crushing them. Mr. 
Portoukalian's innocent attempt of politely petitioning 
the Grand Vizier made him a treasoner, and his paper 
was made a pretext to begin a political persecution, as 
though he were propagating a rebellion. 

The Turkish Government accused the Armenians with 
being engaged in revolutionary movements, and named 
Mr. Portoukalian as the revolutionary leader, while it 
knew well that the Armenians did not even dream of re- 
volting against the Sultan. Mr. Portoukalian having 
been suddenly seized and carried out of Van, and having 
made his escape from Constantinople under narrow cir- 
cumstances, was struggling to keep body and soul to- 
gether to continue the publication of his small sheet, 
which had to depend only on about one hundred subscri- 
bers abroad, its circulation in Turkey having been pro- 
hibited. The Turkish Government pretended to fear 
such a feeble thing, which any other Government would 
not have taken the trouble of noticing. But the Turk 
meant to make capital of everything, to fall on the Ar- 
menians. 

The publication of the Armenia was a very heavy bur- 
den on the shoulders of Mr. Portoukalian, and the pecu- 
niary assistance given by some sympathisers was but a 
trifle, and Mr. Portoukalian experienced a trying time. 
Shortly after the publication of the Armenia was begun, 



146 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Mr. Portoukalian was approached by a few strangers, 
who pretended to be ardent patriots, and offered to join 
hands in carrying on the work of publishing the Armenia, 
and to organize the Armenian colonies for patriotic pur- 
poses. Mr. Portoukalian found these strangers to be 
suspicious characters, and declined to have anything to 
do with them. He was not mistaken. These unknown 
strangers started the publication of a new paper, with 
the name Hentchak (Bell). 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HENTCHAK. 

All about the Hentchak was deeply mysterious at the 
beginning. It was not known where it was being pub- 
lished or who published it. It came out in red revolu- 
tionary color. It advocated socialism — a socialist revo- 
lution in Turkey ; the institution of a socialistic govern- 
ment in the place of the Turkish Government, and the 
amelioration of the poor Armenian workingman in Ar- 
menia. 

This seemed to the intelligent Armenians as a very 
funny anomaly, and its mysterious publishers were taken 
for buffoons. The Armenian Question, the cause of the 
Armenians, was as remote from socialistic grievances as 
the sun is from the moon. One would but laugh and 
want to know what Armenian workingmen these crazy 
chaps wanted to free ? and from what capitalist's oppres- 
sion ? There was hardly any work in Armenia, and no 
capitalist. Armenians would be but happy if there were 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 147 

some capitalists in Armenia who would supply them with 
work even at the rate of twenty-five cents per day. 

This journal was a small sheet, published at intervals 
of three and four weeks irregularly. It claimed to have 
many adherents in Armenia, and alleged that socialist 
revolutionists infested the highways and robbed the Turk- 
ish travelers, &c. Intelligent Armenians merely laughed 
and said that the Hentchah was telling such lies for the 
purpose of winning the sympathy of some ignorant Ar- 
menians, while the ignorant, who did not know what so- 
cialism meant, gave ear to such mendacious statements 
with doubt, and only hoped that the alleged Armenian 
revolutionary movements were true. 

As the condition of Turkey grew worse day by day, 
the people began to flee from the country, and a tide of 
emigration to the United States was begun in 1883, 
which gradually swelled, and to-day there are nearly 
10,000 Armenians in the United States. A large major- 
ity of them are Armenians belonging to the National 
Church, while a comparatively small portion are Protest- 
ants, the converts of American missionaries. The Prot- 
estants were soon in sympathy with the Hentchah, and 
they were very much pleased to read in it vile attacks on 
the Armenian Church and clergy. The Hmtchak de- 
nounced all the clergymen of the Church of Armenia, and 
made violent attacks upon the nation's beloved " Papa," 
the Holy Pontiff. It denounced Christianity in general, 
and the Church of Armenia in particular. 

All the Armenian clergy and the children of the Na- 
tional Church were in antipathy to these rascals, whose 
identity was unknown. But the Protestants, those con- 
verts of the missionaries, liked the Hentchak very much, 



148 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

and were soon attached to it. Almost all the Armenian 
Protestant pastors in the United States advocated the 
Hentcliak as the revolutionary standard under which all 
Armenians should gather, and those who followed these 
pastors became the followers of the Hentchah^ and formed 
a Hentchakist party in America. The leaders of this 
Hentchakist party, as a rule, are the Protestant pastors, 
and the followers are the Protestants. 

Since the construction of the Armenian chapel of the 
Holy Saviour in Worcester, in 1889, the Armenians of the 
National Church in America have had two monks, both 
of whom were strongly opposed to this Hentchakist evil, 
and were persecuted by the Protestant Armenians for 
this very reason. The impudence of these Hentchakists 
was carried so far that they created an actual riot in the 
Armenian Chapel in Worcester because of the Armenian 
monk's opposition to them. 

The Protestant Armenians have been ardent supporters 
of the Hentchak, and they have collected and sent to it 
thousands of dollars. 

Now, I shall try to explain this complicated curse of 
Hentchakism as plainly as I can possibly do. 

The Hentchak at first invented false stories of Hen- 
tchakist revolutionary movements in Turkey, which, if 
true, would have been very foolish on the part of a rev- 
olutionary organization to make public. When the Turk- 
ish Government began to make arrests on alleged suspi- 
cion, the Hentchak published the names of the arrested, 
saying that such and such members of the Hentchakist 
revolutionary movement had been arrested by the Turk- 
ish Government. This was sufficient evidence for the 
incrimination of the arrested Armenians, and they were 



ARMENIA'S OKDEAL 149 

sentenced to heavy penalties. The "revolutionary or- 
ganization " itself was confessing that the arrested were 
members of the organization. What more evidence 
would the Turk care to have ? 

In the summer of 1892 the Sultan was alarmed about a 
plot on the part of the Turks to depose him, which per- 
haps existed only in his delirious imagination, and sud- 
denly he caused two thousand Moslem theological stu- 
dents to be arrested and shipped to the various parts of 
the empire whence they had come. These students, cal- 
led softas, are a lot of lazy and immoral men. They are 
ignorant fanatics, and are gathered into Medressehs, there 
to learn theology, which consists of fanaticism and hos- 
tility to Christians. Thes*^- so-called theological institu- 
tions have been very much encouraged by Abd-ul-Hamid 
and have helped to revive the old Mohammedan fanati- 
cism. Two thousand of these scoundrels were suddenly 
attacked by Turkish troops by night, dragged out of their 
beds, and hustled into vessels cf transportation, and many 
of them were said to have been strangled and thrown into 
the sea. They were carried to Asia Minor, and each 
went to his home, and there brooded mischief against the 
Sultan who caused this wholesale banishment. In the 
following winter seditious placards were posted in seve- 
ral towns in Asia Minor, among them Marsovan and Csesa- 
ria, calling on the Moslems to revolt against Sultan Ha- 
mid II., and re-instate Murad V., Hamid's deposed pre- 
decessor, who is now the Sultan's prisoner. The placards 
were in Turkish, and there is no doubt that the authors 
were the softas that had been banished from the capital. 
The Turkish authorities, in order to defeat the designs 
of the softas and prevent a Moslem outbreak against the 



150 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Government, promptly charged the Armenians with being 
the authors of the placards, and this was preached by the 
imams in the mosques. The Turkish populace was infu- 
riated with fanaticism against the Armenians for plotting 
against the Commander of the Faithful, the Sultan, and 
promptly they took up their arms and fell upon the Ar- 
menians. They pillaged Christian houses, murdered Ar- 
menians, and burned a building belonging to the College 
of the American missionaries in Marsovan, which was 
filled with Armenian students. The troops came out to 
quell the disturbance, and they arrested hundreds of Ar- 
menians but no Turks. About half of the arrested were 
later released, after having their share of suffering in the 
prisons, and more were released afterwards on the inter- 
mediation of foreign representatives. About 300 were 
held and carried to Angora, there to be tried for treason.* 

*The New York Herald^ which had no reason at the time to speak 
on these matters otherwise than as they appeared, published the 
following review on the affair : 

"The Grand Vizier has dismissed from the command of the 
provincial gendarmerie Housref Pacha, whose guilt of setting fire 
to the Marsovan College has been established. Doubtless, accor- 
ding to the custom in such cases, Housref will shortly receive a 
more lucrative appointment. 

" Much though he fears Greek and Armenian disaffection Sul- 
tan Hamid fears Mohammedan disaffection more. In his terror 
of the revolutionary spirit which is spreading so fast through 
Arabia, Syria and Albania, he allows turbulent Moslems of the 
interior to set the law at defiance with the hope that they may 
thus be kept loyal and contented. Kurdish robber and Arnaut 
brigand are sure of pardon provided they leave foreigners and 
children of Islam unmolested. The Christian, on the other hand, 
must endure in silence the oppression of the government, and, far 
worse, the tyranny of his Mussulman neighbors. Should he in 
sheer despair smuggle arms to replace those of which he has been 
deprived, or dare hint at a limit to patience, local authorities 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 151 

The Government charged them with being Hentchakis( 
revolutionists and the authors of the disturbances, and 
■while the poor victims pleaded innocence the Hentchah 
boasted that they were Hentchakists, and that there were 
many more yet who had som*^thing to show the Porte. 
Shortly before this a Roman Catholic Armenian, named 

raise the cry of revolt, and discover seditious placards posted up 
on every wall. Then come the mob, rushing about towns and vil- 
lages, murdering peasants, Insulting priests, plundering houses, 
violating girls, until the wretched rayahis cowed into abject sub- 
mission, and we hear that order is restored. 

" Such was the story of the Marsovan trouble, only in this in- 
stance complications have been provoked by the burning of a mis- 
sionary school. It was a most unlucky bit of tro/> de zek^ and is 
causing the Sultan profound annoyance. He can easily pay the 
Indemnity and dismiss a caimakam, but how complete the satis- 
faction demanded by "Washington without punishing Moslems, 
and therefore running the risk of angering their fellows ? That is 
a tough problem, yet one which has to be faced, as the United 
States will not stand trifling. In point of fact the vast majority 
of Mohammedans desire to live at peace with the Christians, and 
would be delighted to witness the guilty sent to gallows and con- 
vict hulks ; but their sovereign shrinks from the mere idea of 
having to sacrifice a few ruffians. 

"An escape out of the difficulty will be found — for Yildlz Kiosk 
is a past master in the art of shuffling— and the matter permitted 
to pass into oblivion. Still Downing street might usefully study 
its real s.gnificance. Why ignore plain facts ? A Cromwell 
in theory, a King John in practice, Abdul Hamid has neither 
iierve nor strength to adopt the reform necessary to delaying the 
fall of his empire." — New York Herald^ June 28, 1893. 

Again, the New York Herald in its issue of August 26, 1893, said : 

" From all the information that can be gathered on the subject 
the Moslems were clearly in the wrong, having been the aggres- 
sors. But why have they not been punished ? The central power 
at Constantinople believes that it is a good thing to wink at Mos- 
lem outrages. If Moslem discontent finds an outlet for its energy 
inattacking others, the less, it is thought, the throne will hrve to 
fear." 



152 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

Andon Reschdouni, had approached some young Armen- 
ians as a Hentchakist revolutionist, and had asked their 
co-operation in the revolutionary work. I know not 
whether they consented to co-operate with him or repel- 
led him, but the fact is that they did not have time 
enough to engage themselves in any movement even if 
they wanted to. They were arrested during these trou- 
bles, together with Andon Reschdouni, this revolutionary 
leader. The Hentchak eulogized Reschdouni's heroism, 
and recognized him as a great agitator, who had rendered 
so much service for the cause of socialistic revolution in 
Turkey, In court Reschdouni appeared as a dauntless 
hero, who was ready to be hauled up on the gallows at 
any moment ; he looked on death with a contemptuous 
smile ; in a word, he would make a capital hero for a 
dime novel. He did not deny the charges preferred 
against him. He confessed, nay, he boasted of all the 
plots he had been engaged in, and he pointed at his fel- 
low prisoners as his accomplices, and could tell in detail 
what part each person had in the work of socialistic rev- 
olution. When his alleged accomplices denied his story, 
he laughed at them for their timidity and cowardice. 

During this farcical trial Armenians applied to the rep- 
resentatives of the Powers, begging them to watch on 
the trial lest injustice be done to the innocent prisoners. 

Abedin Pacha, the then Vali of Angora, invited a Brit- 
ish consular representative (I am not positive from 
where) to go to Angora and hear the facts from the lips 
of the revolutionary leader himself. The consular rep- 
resentative did go, and Reschdouni was conducted from 
the prison to the Pacha's presence in chains, and waspre- 
sented to the British representative. Reschdouni de- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 153 

clared that he was a socialist and advocated a socialistic 
revolution ; that he was engaged in a revolutionary move- 
ment, but was arrested, together with all his accompli- 
ces ; nevertheless, the socialist revolution would be car- 
ried on, as the Armenian followers of the doctrine were 
innumerable. Reschdouni was conducted back to pris- 
on, whence he wrote a letter to the consular representa- 
tive in which he reiterated what he had said verbally. 
This letter was taken to the British representative, al- 
though no prisoner was allowed to send out any commu- 
nication from the prison. The consular representative 
refused to receive the letter in disgust, but he reported 
to his government what he had heard and seen. The let- 
ter was returned to the writer. Reschdouni took the 
letter and sent it to Prof. Minas Tcheiaz in London, re- 
questing him to publish it in his Anglo-French monthly 
sheet, the V Armenie- Armenia ; but Prof. Tcheraz did 
not publish it, fearing it would injure the case of the 
prisoners. This letter Prof. Tcheraz read out to the Ar- 
menian colony of New York, assembled in a mass-meet- 
ing held especially to hear the Professor speak, on Sept. 
30, 1893. The document must be now in the possession 
of Prof. Tcheraz. 

The trial was a farce all through. Seventeen persons 
were condemned to death, including Andon Reschdouni ; 
»ix persons were sentenced to imprisonment for a term 
of fifteen years ; eight were sentenced to imprisonment 
for ten years, and ten for seven years, including a young 
woman. 

Out of the seventeen of those sentenced to capital pun- 
ishment the sentence was carried out on five, and they 
were hung in public ; the rest were thrown into dun- 



154 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

geons, and some of them were released through the inter- 
cession of the Ambassadors and of the Armenian Pa-. 
triarch in Constantinople. Those sentenced to various 
terms of imprisonment were sent to different prisons in 
various parts of the Empire, and God alone knows w h .t 
became of them. But amid all these severe punishments 
a wonder occurred — call it a miracle if you please. The 
leader of the Hentchakist revolutionists, Andon Resch- 
douni, on whose testimony all those innocent persons 
were sentenced to such monstrous penalties, was not himg. 
But that was not all. He was removed to the Cential 
prison in Constantinople, and after awhile, through the 
fatherly clemency of the most compassionate Sultan, he 
was PARDONED. He goes about freely in Constanti- 
nople as a revolutionary leader ; he has charge of most 
of the " revolutionary " disturbances in Constantinople, 
and tb3 Government knows him but he is not arrested. 
He has the privilege of being a revolutionist. This may 
seem incredible to the reader, yet it is a fact. 

After the Angora trials the Hetitchak published a 
pamphlet containing a lot of fictitious documents show- 
ing how the victims of the Angora trials were realiy so- 
cialist revolutionists, engaged in sedition. 

"While all blamed the Government for hanging inno- 
cent young men, what made the Hentchak so anxious to 
show that they were not innocent, and that the Govern- 
ment punished but revolutionists ? The Hentchak would 
not do otherwise if it were in the hire of the Sultan, and 
it did these things because it is in the hire of the Sultan. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 155 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SULTAN PREPARING FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF 
THE ARMENIANS. 

The extermination of the Armenian nation in Turkey 
■was decided upon several years ago ; not long after the 
Berlin Treaty and the Cyprus Convention. The Govern- 
ment gave full liberty to the Mohammedans to do as they 
pleased with the Armenians, and was eager to drive the 
Armenians to make a movement at rebellion. If they did 
it, then that would be the opportunity for the Turkish 
troops to begin the extermination of the Armenian nation, 
for they were wholly unarmed, and could be butchered 
like sheep. 

The Turks and Kurds ravaged the country, and when 
any complaint was lodged with the Government the com- 
plainants were punished as political agitators anxious to 
calumniate the Moslems. The Government freely circu- 
lated the fable of an Armenian revolutionary movement 
to incite the Moslem populace against the Armenians, 
and to put them into a more vigorous activity. 

Mr. Clifford Lloyd, the British Consul in Erzeroum, 
wrote under date of October 2, 1890, as follows : 

"I believe that the idea of revolution is not entertained 
by any class of the Armenian people in these provinces, 
whatever may be the aims of those outside them. An 
armed revolution is, besides, impossible. Discontent, or 
any description of protest is, however, regarded by the 
Turkish Local Government as seditious, and a policy 



15t) ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

such as I described in my despatch alluded to is pursued, 
depriving the Armenian subject of every liberty to his 
person, and for which no justification exists. This ma- 
terially aggravates the existing discontent, and produces 
a feeling of animosity between Musulman and Christian 
which would otherwise die out, or which would at least 
lie dormant. 

u -x- * * In all crimes of violence of which the 
Christians have been the victims during the past year in 
the Province of Erzeroum, no one has been punished, nor, 
with very few exceptions [at pretense?], has any effort 
been even made to bring the offenders to justice. 

"On June 20 of this year a Musulman mob attacked 
unoffending Armenians in the streets of Erzeroum, killing 
and wounding many, and at the same time pillaging their 
houses and shops, but up to date no steps of any kind 
have, to my knowledge, been taken to prosecute the 
guilty persons. In one case an Armenian shopkeeper 
applied to the Governor for redress, and was referred to 
the Procureur- General, to whom he detailed all the facts, 
giving the names of the offenders and eye-witnesses to 
the attack and robbery. The offenders were arrested, 
but next day released, since which no further action has 
been taken. On the other hand. Christians have been ar- 
rested and detained in prison for long periods without 
any charge being made against them. * * * The agricul- 
tural portion of the Armenian people plead not as rebels, 
but as subjects of His Majesty the Sultan, for protection ; 
but, in the words of the Note presented ten years ago to 
the Sublime Porte on the same subject, the Local Gov- 
ernment at Erzeroum seems ' to refuse to recognize the 
degree of anarchy which exists ' in this province, or ' the 
gravity of a state of things which, if permitted to con- 
tinue, would, in all probability, lead to the destruction 
of the Christian population of vast districts. ' "* 

And Consul Hampson, the successor of Mr. Clifford 

*Turkey, No. i (1890-91), pp. 8i-8a. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 157 

Lloyd in Erzeroum, wrote, under date of June 12, 1891, 
the following : 

"The idea of any wish or plan of rebellion among the 
Armenians in these parts is, to the best of my belief, 
groundless, and the power of carrying such a design into 
execution is entirely wanting. Armenians in this dis- 
trict are a most peaceable people, perpetually squabbling 
among themselves, and for that v^ry reason the less likely 
to unite for aoy common design of rebellion. They have 
neither arms nor leaders, and the idea of any general ris- 
ing is laughed at by all who know the real state of the 
country. In spite of this, however, the Turkish author- 
ities insist on acting as if they believed that an insurrection 
was imminent, and by so doing are promoting, if it were 
possible, tte realisation of what they pretend to dread."* 

But, under such circumstances, the work of extermina- 
tion made very slow progress. The Kurds, while given 
the liberty to kill Armenians, had no desire to do it, 
when they could get the desired plunder from the Armen- 
ians without murdering them. Their object was plun- 
der, not murder, t But this did not suit the plans of the 
Sultan. 

So many good things have been said about Abd-ul- 
Hamid by various Europeans, and still occasionally good 
testimonies appear in newspapers attributing to him such 
virtues as he does not possess, and does not even dream 
of possessing. I can safely say that all those who would 
say such good things about the Sultan, are either igno- 
rant of what they are speaking about or are base enough 

* Turkey^ No. i (1892), p. 57. 

tA Kurdish chief said to Dr. E. J. Dillon, " The Turks hate 
them [the Armenians], and we do not. We only want money and 
spoil, and some Koords also want their lands, but the Turks want 
their lives."— E. J. Dillon, "The Condition of Armenia," Contem- 
porary Review for August, 1895. 



158 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

to have an interest in lying. I cannot imagine how any 
child of civilization can utter a good word for such a 
monster, who is responsible for the most atrocious and 
most tremendous bloodshed in the annals of history. To 
say that Abd-ul-Hamid was not directly responsible for 
the Armenian horrors is blindness pure and simple, for 
the facts stand demonstrating this as conspicuously as 
the midday sun. 

As a Turk and as a Sultan, Abd-ul-Hamid is noL 
an exceptionally cruel monster. The reason why he 
has been carrying on a tremendous work of butchery 
is that he had the opportunity to do it. Any other Turk, 
given the same opportunity, would do the same.^ ) The 
mutual jealousies of the Powers were an opportunity to 
him, and he took advantage of it. A Turk is not to be 
judged by his smiles to foreigners ; one can only know 
what a Turk is when looking at his face as a rayah. 

The Turkish Government consists in the Sultan. The 
Sultan is all in all in the ''administration" of his em- 
pire. He must know everything and he must sanction 
everything. * This has put the country in a state of par- 

*Mr. Shaw Lefevre says : "There Is no detail of administration 
of his government so small or trivial that it does not come before 
him personally for his approval and signature. The British Am- 
bassador, as an illustration of this, told me that he could not get 
his steam-launch repaired in the Turkish dockyard, at his own ex- 
pense, without the matter going before the Sultan for his appro- 
val. Another ex-ambassador said that in an interview at the pal- 
ace the Sultan complained of overwork, and pointed to a great 
heap of papers on his table on which his decision was required. 
The ambassador glancing his eye at the papers, observed that the 
first of them consisted of proposed regulations for a ca/e chantant 
in Pera."— Quoted by Mr. William T. Stead, in his " Character 
Sketch of Abdul Hamid," Reinew of Reviews for January, 1896. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 159 

alyzation, and it is almost impossible to get permission 
for anything of good, while much is done of evil. And 
the Sultan knows what is done, and what is being done, 
and what is to be done. In former times the Ministers 
had the power to act according to their judgment, but in 
Hamid's days they must always seek the Sultan's sanc- 
tion first. Thus the Sultan is his own Minister of the 
Interior, of the Foreign Office, of the War Department 
and of everything ; and all those dignitaries bearing those 
titles are like jumping-jacks in the hands of Hamid. 
This fact is so well known — of course by those who know 
anything of Turkish affairs — that it would be very ab- 
surd to say that Hamid means well but is kept in igno- 
rance of what is going on in his Empire, and that should 
he learn of the prevailing misrule he would not approve 
of the state of affairs. Rustem Pacha, the late Turkish 
Ambassador to England, was one of the ablest diplomats 
in the Turkish service ; he said : " The idea that things 
are done in the Sultan's name without his knowledge is 
nonsense. The Sultan knows everything and sees every- 
thing, and any official attempting to conceal anything 
would be instantly dismissed " * — and more than dis- 
missed, I should say. 

Abd-ul-Hamid himself personally directed the increased 
oppression and persecution of the Armenians, as he di- 
rects everything else. 

Seeing that the Kurds did not do much work in killing 
Armenians even when they were left at full liberty to do 
it, Abd-ul-Hamid invited all the savage Kurdish chiefs 
to Constantinople in 1891, and gave them direct instruc- 

*This declaration of Rustem Pacha may be found in all the lead- 
ing English and American newspapers of October 5, 1803. 



160 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

tions for the future. He invested them with military 
degrees and created Pachas of them, and commissioned 
them to go and organize the Kurdish cut-throats 
into an army to be known as the Hamidieh Cavalry, to 
be held in readiness for service. This army was to be 
self-supporting, and all their necessities were ro be cared 
for by themselves, excepting for firearms, which the Sul- 
tan undertook to furnish. This meant that they were to 
be left at liberty, as before, to do as they liked, and to 
live by robbing the Armenians, with the difference that 
hereafter they were not to be regarded as brigands but 
as regular soldiers in the service of the Sultan, and who- 
ever offered them resistance in anything, the same would 
be a rebel against the Government. The Government 
furnished this Kurdish army with Martini-Henri rifles 
in the place of the old-fashioned flint-lock muskets in 
their possession . And as this army was to be cavalry, 
every Kurd had to have a good horse. The Kurds in the 
very beginning visited the Armenians and carried away 
thousands upon thousands of the best horses. Resistance 
on the part of the Armenians meant sure death, for they 
were the Sultan's troops. If an Armenian was foolish 
enouo-h to go to the Government and complain on a Kurd, 
he would be seized and thrown into prison as a rebel. 

After organizing the Hamidieh Cavalry, and furnish- 
ing them all the modern firearms necessary for acLual 
warfare, Abd-ul-Hamid was ready to begin the work of 
slaughtering the defenceless Armenians at wholesale. 

The arming of the Kurds was an open violation of the 
Treaty of Berlin, but the Powers remained silent, * 

*The New York Herald^ which, for one reason or another, is at the 
present (when the Armenian wholesale massacres are being car- 




HAMID II, Sultan of Turkey. 

The author of the Armenian Massacres, and the nnost blood-thirsty monster 
in the history of the world. 



Armenia's ordeal 161 

CHAPTER YII. 

THE SO-CALLED ARMENIAN REVOLUTION AS IT REALLY IS. 

Besides organizing the Hamidieh Cavalry, the Sultan 
caused the organization of a " Secret Society of Armen- 
ian Revolutionists." This was organized by Nazim Pa- 

ried on), a rabid Armenophobist and a philo-Turk of the most in- 
famous type, said, on the occasion of the organizing of the Ham- 
idieh Cavalry, the following, under the heading — 

"TURKISH MISRULE. 

"A special commission has been appointed by several of the Eu- 
ropean Powers to investigate the Armenian question, but, like 
many other governinental commissions, thej- are verj- dilatorj^ in 
their movements. It is more than five months since their appoint- 
ment, and they have not yet visited the country. Meanwhile the 
Turkish authorities have found a new way to harass the unfortu- 
nate Armenians in mobilizing the ferocious Kurds as a species of 
fl3nng constabularj". 

"Seven regiments, each numbering about five hundred and fifty 
troopers, have already been formed, the contingents being chiefly 
supplied by the Kurdish tribes of Van, Bitlis and Erzeroum, Oth- 
er tribesmen, with the consent of their cliiefs, are volunteering in 
large numbers, so that it is estimated that about fortj^-four or 
forty-five regiments will be finallj' enrolled. The whole will num- 
ber about 22,500 men. These mounted levies will be known as the 
Hamidieh Cavalry, and bear the ordinary numbers of line regi- 
ments in the Ottoman army. 

" Under such a military incubus the hopes and aspirations of 
the Christian Armenians are Anally dissipated. They besought 
the protection of the co-signatory Powers to the Berlin guaran- 
tees against the ruthless oppression of the lawless and ruffianly 
Kurds, and with the tacit consent, if not the approbation, of those 
Powers, the Porte now appoints their worst enemies as their 
guardians." — New York Herald, April ii, 1893. 



162 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

cha, the Minister of Police, who is a favorite of the Sul- 
tan and enjoys Hamid's confidence more than any other 
of his Ministers. 

Nazim Pacha is Minister of Police and Minister of 
" Kevolution " ac? ^Tii^erm. The Turkish G-overnment is 
the only government that has a Minister of Revolution ; 
it is the only government that possesses such a depart- 
ment. This was the invention of Abd-ul-Hamid's infer- 
nal head, and has been a cloak to his crimes with much 
success. I come to show the devil's cob-web spinned by 
Abd-ul-Hamid — an infernal cob- web in which a nation is 
tangled up and is dying like a fly. 

The work of the Armenian wholesale massacres is be- 
ing carried on by the Turkish Government itself, and not 
by unruly Mohammedan mobs. The mobs are armed and 
raised by the Government under the directions of the 
Sultan. They begin their work under orders frpm the 
Government. In many cases the signals to begin and to 
stop have been given by the firing of a gun from the cit- 
adel. They are allowed to kill all they can within a spe- 
cified time, and when the time expires they stop the 
work of blood and withdraw to let the remaining Armen- 
ians bury their dead and clear up the streets of the 
n^angled corpses. 

M This work of butchery is divided into two branches — 
the one is the "Armenian Revolutionary" Branch and 
the other is the Butchery Branch. The former furnishes 
the pretext at a wink from Nazim Pacha, and the latter 
does the work of butchery. After inoffensive Armenians 
are slaughtered by the thousands the Sultan has plenty 
of apologies to the Powers, telling them that the Armen- 
ians rebelled and were the aggressors, and that he is do- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 163 

ing his best to suppress the Armenian outbreaks. The 
Powers know well what all these mendacious apologies 
amount to, but they are genteel and polite, as civilized 
men should be ( !) and they don't tell the Sultan to his 
face that he is a liar, and that there was no Armenian 
revolutionary outbreak. They are even satisfied with 
this hoodwinking scheme of the unspeakable Turk, for it 
is serving also as an excuse for their own criminal inac- 
tion and as a means of blindfolding the civilized world 
in seeing their (the Powers') share of responsibility in 
the crime. The Turk is going ahead with his work of 
blood, telling the world that he is doing his best to sup- 
press the Armenian rebellion and to restore order. The 
Turk will keep on giving this lie to the Powers so long 
as they feel themselves bound to accept it as truth be- 
cause of their inability to come to an understanding 
among themselves. It is a matter of life and death for 
the Armenian nation, but for the relentless European 
powers it is a matter of political advantages. While the 
Turk is murdering the Mother Armenia, the European 
gallant knights are disputing among themselves as to 
which of them is going to have her garment when she is 
dead. And the Turk goes ahead with his work. 

For the past two years this unparallelled system of 
human butchery at wholesale has been carried on syste- 
matically by its two branches — i. e., the "revolutionary" 
and the butchery branches. Beginning their work in 
September, they carry on wholesale massacre all through 
the winter when military movements on the north side 
of the empire are difficult, and there is no probability of 
a Russian invasion of Armenia — the only thing that the 
Turk fears. When spring comes — the time when Russia 



164 ARMENIA S OKDEAL 

begins her wars — the slaughter is stopped and European 
indignation is apoeased. There is a lull in the summer, 
but the work of blood at this time goes on at retail, few 
at a time, depriving thousands of their lives. And when 
September comes again the work of blood is resumed at 
wholesale. 

The Hentchakist Committee consists of spies of various 
nationalities, including some Roman Catholic, Protest- 
ant and atheist Armenians — degenerated monsters in 
whom all human feelings are dead, who have turned into 
enemies toward the nation of their origin, and are acting 
as tools of the unspeakable Turk under the directions of 
Nazim Pacha. One could hardly imagine that such deg- 
radation and degeneration could be possible in a human 
being if there was not such a hideous example as the be- 
traying of Jesus by Judas, one of his own apostles. If 
a human being could possibly be so much degraded as to 
betray unto death his own Lord and Master, of whom he 
had received nothing but good, under whose divinely 
good influence he had remained so long, whose teachings 
he had daily heard, and whose aSection he bad enjoyed 
equally with all the other disciples of the Lord— if a hu- 
man being could possibly become so much debased and 
degraded in spite of such divine influence shining upon 
him, what degradation is impossible under bad influence? 
Indeed, human beings are capable of becoming more 
monstrous, more relentless, than any beast in creation. 

These hirelings of the Turk act as Armenian revolu- 
tionists, and socialists at that. They not only mako the 
world believe that Armenians are in rebellion, but also 
that Armenians are socialists, so that all should shun the 
_^5'nienians5 and there should be no sympathy for them. 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 165 

When these so-callei Armenian revolutionists are not 
engaged in concocting sham demonstrations against the 
Government on behalf of the Armenians, they generally 
engage themselves in blackmailing wealthy Armenians. 
They visit rich Armenians with every boldness, and de- 
mand large sums of money in the name of the ' 'Armenian 
Revolutionary Committee," and they threaten to kill up- 
on refusal. The Armenians pay the money, cursing such 
an Armenian revolution, which is directed against Ar- 
menians. When the victimized Armenians apply to the 
police authorities for the capture of the ruffians the po- 
lice run in the opposite direction to catch the ' ' revolu- 
tionists" ! The correspondent of the ^n?ze?u'a, of Mar- 
seilles, recently wrote from Constantinople that the police 
authorities were well acquainted with these " revolu- 
tionists," and while they went about freely blackmailing 
this and that the police would not arrest them. Many 
patriotic Armenians have been murdered by these li- 
censed assassins, and boasted of in their organ, the Hen- 
;c7i«l', that the " Armenian Revolulionary Committee's" 
brave agents had assassinated such and such traitors. 
Khackaiour Gherektzian, a leading Armenian of unim- 
peachable patriotism, was murdered by these assassins in 
Erzeroum, and the Armenian banker, Mr. Dicran Kara- 
guezian, was not long ago murdered in Constantinople 
upon refusal to pay the demanded money. Karaguezian 
was a patriot and philanthropist, and in his will he left 
one-third of his whole wealth to the nation's charitable 
institutions — all that the law allowed him to bequeath 
for charitable purposes— recommending his heirs to do- 
nate large sums out of their shares for charitable institu- 
tions. 



166 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

The so-called Armenian revolutionists have always 
murdered respectable Armenians of the character of 
Gherektzian and Karaguezian, and the assassins are not 
punished by the Turkish Government. The Government 
will either pretend to be unable to capture the criminals 
or will take advantage of such an opportunity to arrest 
scores of innocent Armenians as revolutionists having 
complicity in the crime, and will throw them into foul 
prisons, there to rot and die in filth, and under the lash 
of the ferocious keepers. 

The Turkish Government has been giving out that there 
exists a great revolutionary movement among the Armen- 
ians, and that these crimes are the work of Armenian 
revolutionists. But these so-called Armenian revolution- 
ists have murdered many prominent Armenians, including 
several priests, l)ut not a single Pacha is Jcilled dy them. Do 
you call this an Armenian revolution ? 

Whenever any minor government of&cial or Turkish 
spy is killed by an exasperated Armenian — something of 
rare occurrence — in revenge for the loss of a brother or a 
son, or a father, the Hentchak is ready to claim that also 
as the work of its agents ; and the assassin — who is sure 
to be captured in such instances — is praised by the Hen • 
tchalc as a brave Hentchakist revolutionist. The Armen- 
ian avenger of course cannot hear the Hentclialc's lying 
statement in the depths of the Turkish dungeon or in 
the bottom of the sea, where he may have been despatch- 
ed, much less deny its truthfulness. The terrified Ar- 
menian people are made to believe that he was a Hen- 
tchakist revolutionist. Such assassinations puzzle the 
Armenians, and they cannot understand how it is that 
these Hentchakists kill both good and bad men. 



Armenia's ordeal 167 

It has been the general impression among the Armen- 
ians in Turkey that these Hentchakists are true revolu- 
tionists, but, being crazy men, they don't know what 
they are doing ; and that, although they mean well for the 
nation, they are doing infinite harm because of their want 
of sense. However, they are hated by all the Armenians, 
excepting the Protestant Armenians whose pastors in 
America (and there are a lot of them) are warm advocates 
of Hentchakism, and are particularly interested in col- 
lecting money for the Hentchakist revolutionary move- 
ment — a large percentage of the collections finding its 
way into their own pockets, while another portion goes 
to the editor of the Hentchak in London, where it is now 
published, to secure the Hentchak'' 8 acknowledgment of 
the full amount. 

Mr. F. D. Greene, who published a book on the " Ar- 
menian Crisis in Turkey " not long ago, speaks of the 
Hentchakists thus : 

" The revolutionist movement, as it is called, is thus 
far nothing but a blind turning of the worm. It is ill- 
considered, without resources [from the Armenians], 
r*^ckless, and foreign to the real spirit, objects and methods 
of the Armenians on Turkish soil. * * * They are hated 
ii/ the vast majority of the Armenians in Turkey. [The ital- 
ics are ours.] -h- * * The Turks take great pains to 
thrust them into public notice, as a cloak for themselves, 
and with good success."* 

Several months before the massacre of Sassoun, which 
occurred about the end of August, 1894, the alarm was 
given in America that the Hentchak was a Turkish tool, 
and a bitter hatred towards it was the result among 

*F. D. Greene, The Armenian Crisis in Turkey^ p. 82. 



168 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

the Armenians in the United States. But the Armenian 
Protestant pastors stood fast in their devotedness to the 
Hentchak, and exerted all their influence to keep Hen- 
tchakism alive among their flocks. The bitter opposi- 
tion of the Armenians of the National Church, and the 
obstinacy of the Protestants in remaining in sympathy 
with the Hentcliak culminated in a bloody conflict among 
the Hentchakist and anti-Hentchakist Armenians in Prov- 
idence. 

Shortly after the alarm was given that the Hentchak was 
a Turkish tool, an Armenian patriot named Nazaret, a 
native of Zeitoun, who had been imprisoned in 
Aleppo, together with some forty other Zeitoun- 
ites, having been released, went to Athens where the 
Hentchak was being published then. Nazaret went to 
Athens for the avowed purpose of killing the villains 
who ran the Hentcliak. However, he was apprehended by 
the G-reek Government before he could carry out his in- 
tention. Gadban Effendi, the Turkish Ambassador to 
Greece, for some odd reasons intervened on behalf of 
Nazaret to secure his release, as Kazaret was a Turkish 
subject. The Greek Government, pressed by Gadban 
Effendi's mediation, released and expelled Nazaret. Af- 
ter one week Gadban Effendi was recalled, and shortly 
after his arrival in Constantinople he dropped dead sud- 
denly. It is necessary to state that it is customary for 
Turkish officials to go to Constantinople and there drop 
dead suddenly, when they have done anything displeas- 
ing to their Imperial Master. Many Turkish officials of 
high standing have expired by dropping dead suddenly, 
but, for reasons best known to Abd-ul-Hamid, iL so hap- 
pens that they generally drop dead in Constantinople and 




NAZIM PACHA, 

Turkish Minister of Police, and tlie Chief of the so-called •'Armenian Revolutionist' 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 169 

seldom elsewhere — who knows? perhaps they find Con- 
stantinople the most convenient place in which to drop 
dead suddenly ! Probably Hamid was angry that instead 
of trying to have Nazaret punished his Ambassador se- 
cured the Armenian patriot's release. Hamid 's anger 
has killed manyo His private secretary, Sureyyah Pacha, 
also suddenly dropped dead two jears ago, when simply 
rebuked by him. 

The Greek Government, being in antipathy with the 
Turk, had treated these so-called Armenian revolution- 
ists with hospitality, having the belief that they were 
true Armenian revolutionists, brooding some trouble for 
the Sick Man ; but on the death of Gadban Effendi the 
Government became suspicious oi the Ilentcha^, and with- 
in a few weeks from that incident, its publishers were 
ordered to leave Greece immediately, which they did, 
and established their bogus revolutionary press in Lon- 
don. 

Th'^re was another " revolutionary " sheet issued at 
very long intervals, and claiming to represent a secret 
Armenian revolutionary organization. Its name was 
"Z)?'oscA«^" (Flag). This, too, was a socialist sheet 
like the Hentchak, printed in the same style, and the 
whereabouts of its place of publication was in deep mys- 
tery as that of the Ilentclicik was at its beginning. One 
could not trace any difference between these two so-called 
Armenian socialist sheets excepting their names. In the 
course of three years the Droschak had issued only a few 
numbers, at very long intervals, and it did not attract 
any attention ; but when the Hentchak came to be looked 
upon with distrust, and its simple-minded sympathizers 
fell off in disgust, then the Droschak came out. It began 



170 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

to be published oftener, and attacked the HmtcTialc for 
its boastfulness. The two papers had a quarrel with one 
another, as if trying to say all the bad things they could 
about one another, and it all consisted in this, that they 
charged one another with heresy in the sacred doctrines 
of the demi-god Herr Carl Marx, each one professing to 
be the only true orthodox socialist. If Carl Marx could 
come to earth and see what these villains were in reality, 
he would have them hung to the first lamp-post. Rava- 
chol himself would look on these criminals with horror. 
This mummery was of course intended to fool those sim- 
ple-minded men who were followers of the Hentcliak but 
now disclaimed it with horror, and to draw them to the 
Droscliak, as if it were not like the Hentchak, while in 
point of fact they are both the same thing, and under 
the control of the same Nazim Pacha. 

These so-called revolutionists, whether under the name 
Hentchakist or Droschakist, consist of two classes— the 
one comprising those who are engaged in active work in 
Turkey, and the other consisting of those ignorant men 
who are in sympathy with them, under the belief that 
they are earnest Armenian patriots striving for the de- 
liverance of the nation from its distress. The men of 
the former class mak? victims of those of the latter class. 

These so-called revolutionists, these hirelings of Nazim 
Pacha, have the privilege of going about and blackmail- 
ing the wealthy Armenians, assassinating respectable- 
people, and terrifying the Armenians under the guise of 
Armenian revolutionists, provided no Moslem is injured 
by them in any way. They go about in Turkey freely, 
and approach Armenian young men, asking their co op. 
eration in the revolutionary work. They gather a group 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 171 

of them to go to work, and before the poor fellows do 
anything their false leader gives information to the Gov- 
ernment and they are all arrested, sometimes the false 
leader also being seized with the rest. The poor victims 
go to prison, never to come out alive again, but the "rev- 
olutionary leader " will be freed to go and entrap more 
Armenians. He will deceive the Armenians with some 
story to the effect that his release was secured by the 
' ' Revolutionary Committee's " bribes given to the Turk- 
ish oflB.cials, &c. ; or, if he cannot deceive the Armen- 
ians a second time in the same district, he will go and 
labor somewhere else, and some one else will come and 
take his place. The Government, however, does not al- 
ways depend on these spies for its victims. If it makes 
a raid in a town once, it can go ahead and arrest the 
relatives of the victims, and the relatives of the relatives, 
and the friends of the relatives of the relatives, &c., in 
an endless chain. The Turk has no more use for these 
hirelings in Armenia, where complete anarchy reigns ; 
now they are used only in Constantinople when a whole- 
sale massacre is to be executed. 

When, after the first wholesale Constantinople mas- 
sacre, September BO, 1895, all the Armenians were so 
much terrified that they could not venture out of their 
own houses, and the streets were being " patrolled " by 
Turkish troops, ready to drag to prison any Armenian 
who might dare to come out of his house, Nazim Pacha's 
^ ' revolutionary " agents went about freely and levied 
blackmail on the terrified wealthy Armenians, and col- 
lected a large amount of money under threat of assassi- 
nation. The police did not arrest one of these " revolu- 
tionists," who are the only revolutionists existing there. 



173 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

The police had no reason to r.rrest them, because the col- 
lected money was carried to the Police Department by 
the "revolutionists " themselves. 

These so-called revolutionists persecuted Patriarch Iz- 
mirlian and constantly haunted him with threats. Pa- 
Iriarch Izmirlian heroically struggled to bring about tran- 
quility by applying to the foreign Ambassadors, by 
raising relief funds and distributing them to his dis- 
tressed flock in Armenia. He had been the consolation 
of the unfortunate Armenian nation. But persecution 
from the Palace and persecution from these so-called revo- 
lutionists, on account of whom he dreaded a repetition 
of the wholesale massacre of September 30, 1895, he was 
driven to resign the Patriarchate in utter despair. 

The flock was deprived of its shepherd, and the wolves 
had full liberty. Nazim Pacha began to have Armen- 
ians hung in the public places ; in the market places, at 
the Galata Bridge and elsewhere, whereby he taught the 
Moslems how to treat the giaour Armenians, and excited 
their thirst for blood. The Moslems of the capital were 
furnished by the polic^ authorities with arms and blud- 
geons. A second wholesale massacre of the Armenians 
in Constantinople was decided upon for August 26. The 
Mohammedans were held in readiness to begin to kill the 
Armenians at a signal. The signal was given by a sham 
raid on the Ottoman Bank by " Armenian revolution 
ists," who entered and took possession of the Bank and 
began to create a great noise, to make all believe that 
there was a terrific outbreak. Within fifteen minutes 
the Mohammev^an mobs were murdering the Armenians, 
pillaging the shops, breaking into houses, and perpetra- 
ting every imaginable atrocity. The Armenians were all 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 173 

taken unawares, while all Lhe Moslems were prepared and 
ready for the work of horror. 

The New York Herald, which for one reason or another 
is the champion of the " much-abused innocent Turk," 
and is anxious to show the admirable good behavior of 
the Turks in murdering tens of thousands of inoffensive 
Armenians, published the following from Mr. Sidney 
Whitman,* its worthy Constantinople correspondent — 
worthy of such a paper — regarding the good behavior of 
the Turkish troops towards the terrible Armenian bank- 
burfflar-anarchist-socialist-nihi list-Fenian-mafia revolu- 
tionists who had taken possession of the Ottoman Bank : 

"The [alleged] Armenians [who had taken possession 
of the Bank] are now firing from the bank windows iq^on 
the soldiers whose conduct is admirable, they surrounding 
the building quietly and awaiting orders from the Sul- 
tan."! 

These Turkish soldiers must have been either angels or 
asses to await the Sultan's pleasure quietly when they were 
heing fired on by dynamiters, or else the revolutionists 
firing on them from the bank must have been their con- 
federates, using blank cartridges alone. 

The Turkish soldiers surrounded the bank and took 
good care that the "revolutionists" did not hurt any one, 

*The staff of the At'w York Herald oso, not always to be judged 
by their names. Its great Parisian correspondent, who signed 
himself Jacques St. Cere, when implicated in a blackmail scandal 
a short time ago, it came out that his real name was Finkelstein 
or Oppenheimer, or something of that sort — I don't remember 
what; I don't care to remember, either. The person signing 
hims elf Sydney Whitman might himself be a Solomon Isaacs or a 
Yacob Epp stein for all that we know. 

\New York Herald^ August 27, 1896. 



174 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

or rather to see that no one should hurt the revolution- 
ists. The " Armenian revolutionists" surrendered on 
condition that no injury be done to their persons, and 
that they should be conducted to a vessel to go abroad. 
The honorable Turkish Government accepted the terms 
and conducted them to a vessel, and they went to Mar- 
seilles safe and sound, without taking away a penny from 
the Ottoman Bank. You know the Turk is a man of 
honor, and when he gives his word of honor it is as good 
as gold. The revolutionists were promised a safe con- 
duct abroad, and the Turkish authorities could not violate 
their promises, nor shoot them down as soon as they evac- 
uated the bank. But why did the honorable Turkish 
Government massacre thousands of inoffensive Armenians 
while it allowed the revolutionists to go free ? f 

The "revolutionists " went free, and thousands of un- 
offending Armenians were massacred. Partiarch Izmir- 

tThe New York Tribune^ which is well known as one of the fore- 
most newspapers in America, said editorially : 

" The Ottoman Bank episode of a fortnight ago shows plainly- 
enough of what they [the Turks] are capable. Apparently, a gang 
of desperate Armenians seized the bank building, and were with 
much difficulty subdued and captured by the Turkish police. 
They were, however, merely captured, not killed, and instead of 
being put to death as rebels, were comfortably transported out of 
the city and released. Whereupon the Turkophile press greatly 
applauded the clemency of the Porte. But now it turns out that 
these " desperadoes " were not Armenians at all, but Turks, in 
Government employ. They were "agents provocateurs," delib- 
erately detailed by the police to do as they did, in order to bring 
discredit upon Armenians, and to give the Turkish Government 
a pretext for repeating in the streets of Constantinople the name- 
less horrors of Sassoun. The diabolical plot worked well. The 
raid on the bank was performed, an outcry against Armenians 
was raised, and nearly 10,000 men, women and children were 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 175 

lian was seized and thrown into a vessel and carried to 
Jerusalem, surrounded by ferocious soldiers, like a crim- 
inal. Anarchy had complete sway in Constantinople, 
thanks to the chief anarchist, Abd-ul-Hamid. Moham- 
medan mobs for days perpetrated in Constantinople, un- 
der the noses of the ambassadors of the Great European 
Powers, such horrors as are not to be seen among the sav- 
ages even in darkest Africa. 

After all the savage desires of the Mohammedan mobs, 
and the more savage wishes of the monster of Yildiz Pal- 
ace, were cloyed by the terrific bloodshed of August 26- 
28, 1896, a farcical commission was appointed by the 
chief criminal, Abd-ul-Hamid, to inquire into the dis- 
turbances and bring the guilty parties to justice. The 
criminal himself coming out to do justice ! — a mockery 
to the Powers and an insult to the world. 

The Turk can easily bring the "guilty parties" to 
"justice" if the Powers will allow him to go ahead in 
his own way. He kills an Armenian, and then he hangs 
another Armenian to avenge the blood of the Armenian 
that he killed himself, and justice is satisfied so far as 
Turkish justice is concerned. 

The Commission appointed by the Sultan to investi- 
gate the "Armenian revolutionary outbreak" and pun- 
ish the guilty parties, quickly found, tried and sentenced 

slaughtered in cold blood, with every imaginable accessory of 
torture and outrage. * * * 

" The current announcement, that the Armenian revolutionists 
are threatening the foreign Embassies and foreign residents gen- 
erally, may be believed by the fishes in the Golden Horn ; surely 
by no one else. It is promulgated by the Turks themselves, to 
create prejudice against their victims." — New York Trivune^ 
Sept. i6, 1896. 



176 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

the " guilty parties." The " guilty parties " were found 
to be Armenians, as always, but in this instance a few 
Mohammedans also were found guilty. This was done 
simply to fool the world, and make believe that impar- 
tial justice has been done. The " guilty " Armenians 
were sentenced to death, and the * ' guilty " Mohamme- 
dans to imprisonment for a term of fifteen years. That 
the Armenians who were adjudged guilty were innocent, 
there can be no question, as Armenians were not at fault 
at all. That the sentencing of some Moslems was a farce 
there also can be no question. If the Moslems sentenced 
to a term of fifteen years were really guilty of murdering 
Armenians as vigorously as Ihe Sultan would like to have 
a Moslem do, they shall be conducted to prison as a farce, 
and will be let out from the back door; but if they should 
be really punished we may be sure that they were not 
guilty of the crime charged, for the guilty is not pun- 
ished in Turkey. Were the really guilty author of the 
wholesale massacre to be punished, Abd-ul-Hamid would 
have to be hung. 

During all these massacres, the Sultan not only 
did not punish the guilty, but even conferred 
decorations and honors — the sort that he can give — 
on those who had done the most hideous work ; and 
when any Government official was found to have made 
earnest efforts in stopping a massacre, he was dismissed 
from his post and thrown into prison. This is the way 
justice is done in Turkey. "The fish rots from the head," 
says the Turkish proverb. The guiltiest parties are those 
in the highest places. If the monsters who are respon- 
sible for these most horrible, most savage wholesale 
butcheries, were to be brought to justice by a Supreme 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 177 

Tribunal with full authority, Abd-ul-Hamid and Lord 
Salisbury would be hung side by side. 

If the Turk is allowed to investigate his own crimes 
and do " justice " as he might please, he would atone one 
crime by committing another. He did not get the ap- 
pellation " unspeakable " for nothing. After massacring 
thousands of unoffending people the Turkish police be- 
gan to search Armenian house's, and " discovered " a 
large number of dynamite bombs, and the European and 
American newspapers in the pay of the Sultan made cap- 
ital of them to attack the victimized Armenians as anar- 
chist revolutionists. The Turkish police can discover 
dynamite bombs wherever they please ; they can find 
tbeJi also in the Embassies of Britain, Russia, Austria, 
Germany and Italy if they should like to do it, and if 
they should have the power to break in. 

In 1883, Bahri Pacha, a Kurd, who was the Chief of 
Police in Pera, raided a house and discovered all the 
forges and dies of the counterfeit coins that had been put 
in circulation, and arrested the inmates of the house as 
forgers. There was a very exciting trial, in the course 
of which it came out that the Turkish police under Bahri 
Pacha had broken into the house at night and placed all 
those instruments there, and then arrested the inmates 
and carried them to the Police Department, together 
with all the instruments of forgeries which they had de- 
posited there themselves. As the trial went on, under 
the vigilence of the European Embassies (for Pera is 
the quarter of European residents), it was found that 
the head forger was Bahri Pacha himself, and that he had 
turned the Police department into an institution of for- 
gery and all sorts of crimes. Bahri Pacha was found 



178 ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 

guilty and sentenced to death, and on the following Fri- 
day, as the Sultan was going to the mosque, a crowd of 
European residents of Pera made a demonstration of joy 
and cheered Abd-ul-Hamid rapturously for the justice 
done under his rule. Shortly, Constantinople was thun- 
derstruck to hear that the Sultan had pardoned Bahri 
Pacha, this monstrous criminal. (It was said that a sis- 
ter of Bahri Pacha was one of the females in the Sultan's 
feminine stable, the harem. ) 

Bahri Pacha was not only pardoned by the Chief An- 
archist Abd-ul-Hamid, but was also promoted from the 
post of a Police Chief to that of Mayor of Scutari. The 
notorious brigand, Moussa Bey, who some years ago rav- 
aged the Armenian villages in the Moush Plain with his 
band of Kurdish assassins, was a son of a sister of Bahri 
Pacha, so that one of the wives of Abd-ul Hamid must 
have been an aunt of Moussa Bey, who could address the 
Sultan as his "dear uncle." Any wonder that Moussa 
Bey also should have gone unpunished after a farce of a 
trial in Constantinople ? When Moussa Bey came to 
Constantinople to be tried, he was the honored guest of 
his uncle, the Mayor of Scutari, and was affectionately 
received, before going to the tribunal of Turkish justice, 
by his other uncle, Abd-ul-Hamid, the Sultan of Tur* 
key. 

Later, Bahri Pacha was promoted Governor-General of 
the Province of Van, the most important province in Ar- 
menia. His administration was a reign of terror, and the 
Province of Van was ruined. ^ 

Beheld the Sultan, who is expected to punish the 
guilty parties in ihe Armenian massacres, is the brother- 



ARMENIA'S ORDEAL 179 

in-law of a notorious criminal and the uncle of a mon- 
strous brigand. ! 

After all the horrible massacres have been perpetrated, 
and after it is seen that Abd-ul-Hamid is the author of 
them all ; that the institution called the Turkish Govern- 
ment consists of the most bloodthirsty, most monstrous 
assassins, it is an unpardonable crime for the Powers to 
wait and see that the Turk should do justice and punish 
the guilty parties. It is sharing in these monstrous crimes 
of the unspeakable Turk. It is complicity pure and sim- 
ple. This cannot be allowed to go on, and the European 
Powers— and, above all, the British Government — should 
know that they are not the most omnipotent masters of 
the world. They cannot barter the lives of mankind as 
they will. They should know that they stand, not alone 
by the power of their swords and cannons, but by the 
respect and regard of the nations. They are always be- 
fore the Tribunal of Public Sentiment and subject to its 
sentence. If they act with such relentless rascality, — if 
they will permit such horrors to go on because of their 
sordid interests and criminal greed — they shall lose the 
respect of their peoples, and when they lose the respect 
of their subjects they lose everything. 

Emperor William, of Germany, loves to speak of the di- 
vine rights of sovereigns. The sovereigns have no divine 
rights if they do not perform their divine duties, for right 
and duty go together ; where there is no duty there is 
no right. 



